Getting Around the Dinner Table.

This year we’re seeing a movement to get people around the dinner table to forward progress on causes. While there has there been a trend of communal dining—from large, shared restaurant tables and online programs, such as eatwith.com, that bring strangers together over a meal, these programs are adding another layer of “doing good” to make the most of eating together.

• FEED, a social cause company that is focused on contributing to food and nutrition programs around the world, ran a program this fall asking people to host a meal as a fundraiser. Over the course of 30 days, these FEED Suppers had a goal to donate a total of 1 million meals for children and families in need. http://www.feedprojects.com/feedsupper/participate, #FeedSupper
• To champion women helping women, Artist, Zoe Crosher, started the Fainting Club, a dinner club for women, which she has taken bi-coastal from Los Angeles to New York and is now planning to take global. It’s all about the idea of using food gatherings and conversation to forward the cause of helping each other.
• Others are using the dinner table to encourage conversation around critical and difficult topics, such as death and drugs. This idea of bringing people together for conversation over the dinner table was first championed by Michael Hebb back in 2000 with the concept of “Family Suppers.” Last year he facilitated dialogue with the “Drugs over Dinner” program, and this year expanded the concept to “Death Over Dinner” to encourage dialogue around end-of-life matters, reaching over 20,000 people in 30 countries.

Culture Forecast: Help us be a part of the community and contribute to doing good.

Sources:

Braunmar, Adee. “Alone Together: The Return of Communal Restaurant Tables,” The Atlantic, March 31, 2014.http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/alone-together-the-return-of-communal-restaurant-tables/284481/

Druckman, Charlotte. “A Los Angeles Ladies-Only Dinner Club Migrates to New York,” The New York Times, November 5, 2014.

Gregoire, Carolyn. “Why Strangers Are Coming Together To Discuss Tough Subjects Over Dinner,” The Huffington Post, September 12, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/12/drugs-over-dinner_n_5793576.html