Ramen Slaw
On page 40 of our 175th Anniversary Collection of Shared Favorite Recipes I am proud to be reminded of my Dad’s efforts in the late 1960s thru the 70s. When he retired from First National City Bank, Wall Street, NYC, he became determined to make a difference in our world efforts toward peace.
The Presbyterian Church USA sponsored a group he founded called “Emerging Economies.” Their purpose was to enable under-developed third-world countries to resist the spread of Communist encroachment, and to develop economic sustainability.
He, A. Eugene Adams, and my step-mother, Ruth Harris Adams, who was a renowned pediatrician from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, traveled to several of these countries to make that difference. Dad’s thinking was that churches should invest a part of their national endowment money in socially conscious projects and companies around the world, instead of just buying stocks and bonds in the US market.
In South Korea he found Sam Yang/Ramyon, a company that had just started to make instant noodle soups, and who needed expansion capital. The soups were inexpensive, nutritious, easy for working people to fix, and filling – a delicious meal in a packet. There was nothing like it in Korea at that time.
Emerging Economies invested in Sam Yang/Ramyon which went on to become one of the largest corporations in the Korean economy. As they say, the rest is history.
Investing in developing noodle factories was only one of many ways in which my Dad and Ruth devoted their time, energies, and personal monies toward improving the economies and the health care of the under-developed countries they visited.
Prayer: Help me to sow seeds of hope and promise where I walk each day, I pray. Amen.
Janet Munson
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