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Lucas Thompson wasn’t expecting to witness a child’s first bite of a plum, from her family’s tree, when he went to work on a normal day.

Part of his job with Branch Out Cider is to harvest fruit from a network of Northern Colorado residents who donate their unharvested fruit to the cider-making business. Most of it is quiet work. So when he heard a young girl scream from inside a house during a harvest, he was confused.

Her mother brought her out to meet Thompson and explained that the 4-year-old was upset that he was taking the fruit. He bent down, explained what they were doing and asked her to join. Giving her an extra basket and teaching her how to pull the ripe fruit from the branch, she filled up the entire container.

And then she took a bite.

“There was a smile that started to stream across her face. Believe it or not, she’s never tasted this fruit before,” Thompson said. “It was the best thing that she’s ever tasted. It was the most profound thing I’ve ever witnessed.”

No longer was his job about the business, the community orchard or even the cider. It was about connecting to people.

In the 21st century, where many of our daily meals are packaged and ordered, and our fresh vegetables and fruit are shipped across state lines, the connection between people and food is a distant miracle that Thompson thinks we should all experience.

“I think we all have a little bit of this girl in all of us,” Thompson said.