Sunday Dinner

While the Hill House has participated in many great projects, I have always felt that dinner was the best way to engage community. I’ve been participating in Sunday Dinners in different forms for close to three years now. It’s not a meeting. It’s not a program. It’s dinner.
The first Sunday dinner was at my friend Julie Gunn and Emily Gillespie’s house. Julie and Emily cooked all vegan dinners that they cooked by themselves. We always knew that what was happening was special. There were people of many different faiths, so rather than say grace we just went around a circle and something for which we were thankful. For me, however, those Sunday Dinners were over almost as soon as they begun. I only started coming around right before Julie moved away.
Over the next year, my friends and I got very busy. There was a presidential election and we registered over 500 voters. We went to Powershift with youths from across the nation to learn about how to repower our nations future. We started working on passing fair housing legislation in Bowling Green. It seemed the busier we got, the less time we had for each other. It was time to start Sunday Dinner again. My friend Nick and Emily started to have it again. Nick said, “We just kind of did it. We really liked the whole concept of it. We had a good place for it with a huge living room.”
When I moved into the Hill House, Nick had gone to India and Emily was in a one bedroom apartment. It became clear to me that there could be no better project than a regular dinner to build community. I think at that moment, I needed Sunday dinner more than it needed me. My closest friends were studying abroad. I was living by myself in a huge house. Eating food with all of my friends once a week nourished more than just my body.
Sunday Dinners have spread. Some friends from the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition in Murray have their own. My friend Becca told some of her friends who go to school at William and Mary and they had some. Friends at Transylvania said they were going to try and use their cafeteria.
So if you’re feeling stressed, tired, lonely, or just hungry you should stop by my house this Sunday. We try to eat at 7:30. If you want, bring a dish to share. If you can’t, please come anyway. We try to avoid meat but we’re not all vegetarians. Just leave your agenda at the door and come inside. We’ll have something warm ready in just a minute.