Around the Table

A community-engaged research project and podcast

the project

A collage of three photographs featuring different groups of people conversing over shared meals.

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 differences of race, gender, sexuality, culture, age and faith? The shared meal as sacred space and site for healing is a repeated theme across dinner dialogues. This project centres around interviews with leaders from different dinner dialogue projects, edited and presented as a podcast series.

This pilot project is a collaborative, community-engaged research study led by Dr. Cindy Holmes (University of Victoria) in partnership with Fionna Chong (Vancouver Community College) and Leslie Williams (Sharing Farm Society). Our project builds on our past and existing relationships with Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer (2SLGBTQ) communities, Indigenous, newcomer and refugee communities, Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities, farmers, and food producers.

We are critically examining the socio-cultural and spiritual impact these intentional dinner dialogues have in their communities. The heart of the project consists of interviews with community leaders from across Turtle Island (North America) structured as a podcast series. We are exploring how organizers understand 1) the relationship between food sharing, dialogue, spirituality and social justice, and 2) the impact the dinner dialogues have on individual, community and spiritual wellbeing.

ACKNOWLEDGeMENTS

We acknowledge and respect the lək̓wəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the University of Victoria stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Around the Table is grateful for the support of a Faculty Fellowship Award from Centre for Studies in Religion and Society and an Internal Research Grant Award from the University of Victoria. We also appreciate the generous in-kind contributions from community partners, Vancouver Community College (Fionna Chong) and Sharing Farm Society (Leslie Williams).

University of Victoria logo. The shield features three red birds over an open book on a blue background. Underneath the shield, the words "University of Victoria" are written in black text.
University of Victoria School of Social Work logo. The crest is Kwak'wakawakw artist and BSW Graduate Francis Dick's black and white interpretation of the UVic logo/crest with a face surrounded by touching hands dominating the centre.
Vancouver Community College logo, with the name of the college written in white over a bright green background.
Sharing Farm Society logo, featuring a green leaf overlaid with white hand shapes reaching upwards. Underneath the leaf, "Sharing" is written in green script and "Farm" is written in black, all-caps.