A Workplace Potluck Filled With Filipino Food And Memories
After a homesick intern inspired a group of Filipino-American coworkers to start a weekly lunch club, they all began to realize how much they missed — and needed — a taste of their shared heritage.
The weekly potluck started simply enough. A new intern sent a Filipino-American colleague an email titled "Filipino intern looking to find other NPR Pinoys."
"He's looking for other Filipinos in the building to hang out with," my colleague told me, forwarding the email. "You should come to lunch with us."
I'm a Filipino-Egyptian-American. In my decade of working in Washington, D.C., I had never thought to reach out to my fellow kababayan, Tagalog for "countrymen," at the workplace for camaraderie and companionship — until this intern's very earnest request.
When we met the intern at the cafeteria, he told us that he had moved to D.C. from Southern California just a few weeks
