Peyton Boggs

Ms. Tillery

Senior Project Speech

March 20, 2012

A New Beginning

Good evening, my name is Peyton Boggs and for my Senior Project I am catering to a

Banquet Fundraiser that is supporting the children in Africa who are suffering from poverty.

The actual product is going to be the African dishes that I will be creating and serving to the

audience. Ever since I was a little girl, the weaknesses of poverty always intrigued me in a

way that poverty, to me, was defined as a way for one to grow into an entirely new person.

My inspiration for this would have to be my grandfather. When he was a child he had also lost

his parents. He had nowhere to go while he was forced to take care of his younger sibling,

David. Back then there were limited options for food, shelter, and they had absolutely no

money. My grandfather and his little brother were forced to live on the streets until they

became old enough to work and support themselves. He became my ultimate hero because he

grew stronger from the pain and suffering he was forced to go through along with raising his

little brother; he later became a preacher. A year ago, however, he unfortunately passed away

from Kidney cancer. Through the conquering of the struggles he has gone through I realized

that I had wanted to be involved with a charity for countries in poverty. So I came upon a

banquet my church was having and asked the host, Joy Cape if I could use this opportunity to

be involved with something I am most passionate about. I had told her that I was doing my

Senior Project and was interested in catering for their banquet and she was accepted it. She

also mentioned that she is a caterer as well and that she could help me with it.

The process for this project was fairly simple, yet it did have its problems along with it.

Before I started experimenting with the different dishes, I did some research to find what

different types of African dishes I could make, what would have the most impact on the

people and the different ways I could add my own touch to it. As I began cooking I realized

how many ingredients I needed in order to make these dishes, so I went to the store and

bought all I needed. Now I begin baking… Everything went smoothly for the majority of the

process, but there were some problems that occurred as well, such as not having enough

ingredients, and overcooking the food. My facilitator, Joy Cape, who has been in the catering

business for 2 years, helped me through the entire process, especially with the problems that

occurred along the way. The first dish, Moroccan Steak with Sweet Potatoes had a couple

problems that occurred. The first problem was that while I was mixing the ingredients I

discovered that I didn’t have the right ones. So I ended up going back to the store to get the

right ones. The second dish, the Tanzanian Baked Bananas, was simple, yet I misread the

directions and used peeled bananas instead of unpeeled. I then performed an experiment with

a second batch of bananas to see if the same results would occur but with unpeeled bananas.

In the end I figured out that the second batch of bananas which were the unpeeled were more

of a success than the first.

In conclusion, through creating these dishes and researching about the African culture

behind it, I’ve found that it has encouraged me to explore myself more as a person and to

appreciate every little thing in life no matter rich or poor. It’s the same with the children in

Africa, even though they suffer every day from hunger and illness they still find a way to

survive. I’ve also realized that even though I’m catering to the people of the banquet, I am

also catering to the children in Africa and that alone is what will always keep my head up.

Even though I might not look towards catering as a career, I feel that I am capable of doing it

again for future events in my life. Poverty is a much bigger thing than lack of hunger, shelter,

and love, it will ultimately show you what kind of person you truly are and the capabilities

you can have in making a stronger life for the future.

At this time I want to thank the judges for your time and attention.

I will now answer any questions you may have.