There is joy in the community we make around a bountiful table of mouth-watering dishes. There is delight, too, in the camaraderie of working together to prepare and beautifully present a delicious bounty. Don't we pine for the return of these rich shared experiences?

In the "Before Times" I volunteered to make photographs of the monthly dinners prepared by refugee cooks from Syria and Iraq at the Hand in Hand Cafe sponsored by LexRAP, a Lexington-based non-profit organization that helps refugees settle in the United States and become productive and well-adjusted members of the community. My photographs reveal something of the hard-working chefs who spent long hours proudly creating traditional delicacies from their homelands for each monthly "dinner party" of 85. Closed for group dinners since early Spring 2020 due to the pandemic, the Hand-in-Hand Cafe relaunched itself as the Hand-in-Hand Carry Out Cafe with the same delicious foods, the same wonderful refugee cooks. Feast on the photographs and visit www.lexrap.org to learn more about LexRAP.

I plan to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these photographs to support the work of LexRAP.