What We Leave Out: Reflection, Limits, and the Future of Foodways Work

Every public history project carries limits. Recognizing them is not a failure—it is an ethical obligation. 

Reflecting on the Food, Family, and Tradition program, several areas invite deeper attention. While the event centered on community voices, the final panel did not fully represent the diversity of Over-the-Rhine. Time constraints and limited community interactions—due to time constraints—in the neighborhood shaped who could participate. Gender diversity was also constrained, highlighting how inclusion requires not just intention, but long-term relationship-building. 

Jim Tecco & Nghiep Ho

These limitations point to a broader lesson: shared authority is not achieved through invitation alone. It requires trust, time, and structures that allow communities to guide interpretation from the outset. The focus is not on innovating the future of history-making, but on sustaining memory—what can be passed down, held, and carried forward as knowledge. In future iterations of this work, advisory groups, community-nominated speakers, and deeper engagement beyond business ownership—especially with home cooks, elders, and informal food networks—would strengthen the program.

There is also room to expand how foodways are interpreted. Restaurants are visible, but they represent only a fraction of everyday food culture. Kitchens, lunch pails, church gatherings, street vendors, and grocery stores often hold the most intimate histories of migration and survival. 

Recent scholarship underscores why this matters. For younger generations, especially those navigating fractured cultural identities, access to traditional foods can shape emotional well-being and belonging. When cultural foodways disappear, something more than taste is lost—a connection to self, family, and history erodes. 

OTR’s story shows us that foodways are not peripheral to history; they are central to how people endure change. Germans, Appalachians, African Americans, Chinese migrants, and Southeast Asian families all relied on food as a grounding force amid displacement, labor exploitation, and social exclusion.