Bring A Cheese Plate 🧀

I’ve discovered an amazing new piece of strategic communication. It is to buy a cheese plate and bring it along to a volunteer occasion you’re invested in. If you’re going to an in-person meeting, soon, I’m serious. Spend the money. Get the cheese plate. You won’t regret it. 

I first learned it from a guy at church. I serve on the vestry. We had an hour-long meeting. I don’t remember much. Afterwards we had some cheese. He bought this cheese called “delice de Bourgogne.” I ate one bite of it and can still remember my eyes widening. My impression of this guy went up a long way. I asked him several questions about the cheese. He knew his cheese game was solid. I respect that. He lit the cheese fire in me. 

I also serve on the board of my kid’s playgroup. We had an open house. I went to Murray’s on Bleecker Street and spent, like, money, on a cheese plate. They have smaller ones but if you’re going to spend something on a cheese plate, why not have it hurt a little? Be that person. It had apricots and rosemary and grapes and figs and almonds and Manchego and Camembert on it. People showed up. They ate the cheese. They were like, “nice cheese plate.” They meant it. They weren’t being polite. They enjoyed it. They said they had a very positive impression of the playgroup. Of course, this was mainly down to the amazing teachers and volunteers. (Incidentally, if you’ve got a two-year-old in the West Village, and you’re looking for an affordable community cooperative playgroup, I can vouch wholeheartedly for Downing Street. We’re accepting applications now for next September, and we have a rare slot or two still left open for this year—when I walked in, I said, “oh My God, it’s like a real-life Sesame Street.”)

But the impressed parents…partly credited the cheese. I realized that pound for pound, cheese plates give fantastic return on investment. I also went home, and we ate the leftovers for days.

Tonight, it’s my team’s league night at the squash club. So, guess what? I went to Murray’s again. I’m a fiend for these cheese plates, now. I invested in a wooden cheese board. Cheese paraphernalia. I got some of that fancy French cheese from the church night. I got some salami. A Camembert, again. I’m curating my own cheese plates, now. I’ve got my cheese legs. I’m a bit worried I could be the Icarus of cheese, flying too close to the sun. It could get messy. Our fridge stinks. I better get that cheese out of here, I’ve been told.

You can’t only buy a cheese plate. You do need to invest time and energy in other ways. I’ve also done more volunteering this year. I liked the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary on Netflix. What he said about trying to “be useful.” I enjoy working with clients that are aiming to build civic engagement. Some of it has rubbed off on me. You can serve your community in a lot of ways. But I realized you also get a lot for trading your time for free. You show up, you offer your skills, your energy, and you get to be useful. You get to belong. But a lot of this is about showing you’re invested, as a volunteer. It’s not only about the money. It’s about saying, “I’m here, and I want to contribute.” It sends a clear message. People find it easy to engage with because they…love to eat cheese.

A cheese plate is the opposite of loneliness.