Around the Table Dialogues

SAGE Table is an initiative of SAGE, the largest and oldest organization in the United States dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ older people. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in New York City, SAGE is a national organization that offers supportive services and consumer resources to LGBTQ+ people and their caregivers. SAGE Table launched in 2017 launched in 2017 to fight isolation in the LGBTQ+ community through the power ...

On this episode of Around the Table, my collaborator Fionna Chong and I are in conversation with Reverends Min-Goo Kang and Ha Na Park about their dinner projects – Friendship Kitchen, Taste of Home, and Belonging Dinners.

Ha Na Park started Friendship Kitchen in 2017 at The United Church in Meadowood in Winnipeg Manitoba on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples,...

What Artists Bring to the Table was a community program of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, organized by social practice artist Regan Shrumm, that took place every Sunday from July to November 2019. Regan says, the “project examined the wide range of narratives that food offers us”, where “participants worked directly with an artist to cook a meal or learn a food-related skill, and then sat down to discuss how the workshop rela...

In today’s episode of Around the Table, my collaborator Fionna Chong and I are in conversation with Nina Fernando, Executive Director of Shoulder to Shoulder. The Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign: Standing with American Muslims, Advancing American Ideals is a national multi-faith coalition of religious denominations and faith-based organizations who are committed to ending anti-Muslim hatred, discrimination, and violence in the United...

In today’s episode of Around the Table, my collaborator Leslie Williams and I are in conversation with Jennifer Hawkins, a community health organizer and researcher who was part of a dinner dialogue project called New Matrix Meals. This was a partnership with Chilliwack’s Pacific Community Resources Society in 2017, that focused on reducing stigma about substance use through meal sharing in people’s homes. It was part of a series o...

On today’s episode of Around the Table, I continue the conversation about The People’s Supper, with K Scarry, the director of Partnerships with The Dinner Party Labs, where we explore more about the complexities and transformative possibilities of dinner dialogues and the work The People’s Supper is doing to cultivate spaces of healing and connection.  K is the Director of Partnerships for The Dinner Party Labs. She works with comm...

On today’s episode of Around the Table, I’m in conversation with Lennon Flowers, Executive Director of The Dinner Party Labs, and Reverend Jennifer Bailey, Executive Director of the Faith Matters Network, where we talk about two innovative dinner dialogue initiatives that have deeply inspired me: The Dinner Party and The People’s Supper.

This is part one of a two part episode, and next time, in part 2, we’ll be hearing more about ...

Episode transcript available here.

Gathering for a meal, formally or informally, is a ritual that is a central part of human cultures. The food feeds our bodies. The gathering can feed something else—our sense of understanding one another, our sense of our shared humanity, our sense of community.

What is the power of shared meals, dialogue, and storytelling, to build community, deepen understanding, and create healing across differ...