The Bronx Defenders is a legal aid organization that represents 35,000 people per year. Attorneys there work long hours, with uncertain schedules, high caseloads, and very little downtime, if any. When I heard that five Staff Attorneys in the Family Practice division had pulled off a system for bringing their lunch from home every day, and have kept it up for nearly a year, I had to find out more. On Monday, I took the 50 minute subway ride from the WNYC office on Varick Street to 149th Street Grand Concourse with Jennifer Hsu, WNYC’s video producer, walked 15 minutes to 161st Street, and met the Lunch Bunch.
Mary Anne Mendenhall, Rebecca Oyama, Holly Beck, Erin Schechter, and Clara Presler: Family Defense Attorneys, meal-making evangelists, and proud members of the Lunch Bunch. Mendenhall and Beck started the group in April of 2014, each making four portions of lunch once a week. Oyama and Presler joined a few months later. Schecter started as a substitute member, then came on full time, after a vote.
Each member brings five lunch portions once a week, and receives homemade meals the rest of the week. There’s a flurry of texts the night before, lunch is dropped off in the morning, “and then around 1 p.m. there will be an explosion of texts saying so good and it’s the best!” said Mendenhall.
When we met on Monday, Oyama had brought lunch for the group that day. “This is a couscous and chickpea and radish and lemon and almond and haloumi salad with zatar dressing,” Oyama said casually. The haloumi and lemon slices had dark grill marks, the dressing was portioned on the side, and each lunch came with a bagged dessert: Mendenhall’s salted caramel bar.
Each member expressed that they saw this lunch as a gift, and felt happy and eager to provide lunch for the group once a week. No stress, no shaming. Throughout the year they developed a powerful positive feedback loop, and they rarely miss a lunch day. With their hectic schedules, that means preparing roasted red pepper soup at 1 a.m. or potato salad at 6 a.m.
The Lunch Bunch has inspired an offshoot group, and at times they compete for space and can mix up each other’s food. Mendenhall once took the wrong lunch to meet a client at Rikers Island. She was halfway through the meal before realizing that she had the wrong tupperware.
As lawyers, the group also has to be sensitive about how their lunch smells. They frequently appear in court, and are often whispering in their clients’ ears. Oyama once made pickled daikon radishes with fish sauce for the group. “I came out of the elevator in court, and I thought I smelled a baby diaper,” said Mendenhall. “I was like ‘What is that smell?’ And someone says ‘I’ve got news for you: that’s your lunch!’” Mendenhall quickly added, laughing, “It was the most unbelievable smell, but it was also a delicious meal." Oyama has made the same lunch since then.
They are often met with skepticism when they discuss the group. How long can it last? they often hear. But they have built this habit into their day to day lives. The support and encouragement from the group, not to mention the delicious meals, makes it unlikely that they will disband any time soon.