The Story of Frugal Foodies

How Frugal Foodies Started

Frugal Foodies was started by J Moses Ceaser in 2005. Moses used to run a nonprofit called DiversityWorks, which he founded in 1998.  After six and a half years, it was time to move on and do something new…but it wasn't clear what that something was.  In order to help reflect on next steps, he decided to take a road trip around North America, staying only with friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. So in February, 2005, he headed out on a three month trip where he stayed with 62 different people in more than forty cities and towns, photographing each person along the way.  In Montreal, his friend Adam AvRuskin had connected him with a longtime friend of his named Vanessa Reid.  Vanessa ran a delightful Meals on Wheels program called Santropol Roulant and urged Moses, in a way that a past Executive Director could very easily appreciate, to spend a day volunteering at her nonprofit.  So he went and helped prepare over 100 meals with a lovely group of fellow volunteers and a few staffpeople.  Their informal motto was that people meet each other really well over a cutting board and they rarely used kitchen power tools because it broke up the conversations.  While he was there, one of the staffers, a woman named Robin Henderson, told Moses about a Tuesday night get-together that she founded to help promote healthy and inexpensive eating.  She called it “Cheap Eats” and it was open to staff and volunteers at the Roulant.  Moses loved the idea and decided to try to do something similar in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So at the beginning of June 2005, Moses came up with the name “Frugal Foodies” and started to spread the word for a launch night of Tuesday, June 14^th.  He didn’t quite know who would show up (besides a few friends) or what would be cooked.  But people did show up--in fact 12 people (most who had learned about Frugal Foodies through listserves)--and what started as chaos turned into something rather magical.  It’s gone on just about every Tuesday since, with a few changes here and there, but always based on the same simple concepts of cooking good food and building community.

About the Founder

Frugal Foodies was created in June, 2005 by J Moses Ceaser.  When he’s not having strangers over for dinner, Moses is a documentary photographer, committed to social justice storytelling and exposing the extraordinary in the ordinary.  He also runs a photo booth business called Fotomio.  As mentioned above, Moses founded and used to run a small Oakland-based nonprofit called DiversityWorks, dedicated to community-building and anti-oppression activism with young people. 

Moses has had no formal training in cooking, but he did grow up in a household where home cooked meals were the norm and fresh vegetables were grown in the garden.    His first exposure to cooking came through a 3-week home economics class in the 7^th grade where he lost a bet to Greg Dale about whether hot or cold water dried faster.  Later that year, he helped his mom make hundreds of blintzes for his Bar Mitzvah and from that point on, he was off and running.

Rarely do Moses’ concoctions turn out the same twice as he very infrequently cooks from recipes and preaches adventure in the kitchen.  His house is filled with jars and jars of staples and spices, yet no measuring cups or spoons.  His favorite foods are stone fruit and all things fried and his super power is the ability to taste something he likes in a restaurant (also an infrequent occurrence) and recreate it almost perfectly at home.

Moses aspires to open up a restaurant one day in the future, specializing in recycled food.