Hummus
Hummus became a running theme during the 2023 Project for Awesome. Chat was unhappy with Hank's use of the default Slack sound but he needed to hear when there were messages. Alys in slack suggested the Hummus sound. A poll was set up to determine what he should change the notification to: Plink or Hummus. Hummus won. What Hank did not realize was the Hummus notification sound is a person saying the word "hummus."
Hank was true to his word and set up the Hummus sound. At which point the random channel in the slack filled with messages to hear Hank's computer constantly say "hummus." Memes were made, chat filled with hummus, and the "we're here because" refrain because "we're hummus because."
Hank made Mr. Hummus one of the characters in a story he created as part of a balloon task and included lemon hummus in the alphabetical story he wrote for another balloon task. When writing songs about what had happened so far in P4A, the Gregory Brothers included hummus in their song about T-RAX. Taylor and Miriam mixed gatorade with garlic hummus in an effort to raise money. While watching a featured video during Taylor and Miriam's time hosting we reached $2 million raised. They returned from the featured video singing "we're hummus because..."
Late into the first night of the stream, Hank began a discussion of possible mascots for the 2023 P4A and said "I love hummus, that's kind of giving me life."
The next morning John commented, “Hummus, the unexpected star of the 2023 Project for Awesome. Nobody saw it coming. Hummus has emerged.”
While hummus did not win the poll to determine the 2023 P4A mascot, hummus was ever-present. Hummus was built into the lore of T-RAX.
Someone sent hummus to the JWST and Hummus Mike went to Mars.
Hummus was even built in Nerdcrafteria.
As Ceri commented at the end of the stream, "the hummus is the community we made along the way."