{"id":36088,"date":"2016-03-09T12:30:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=36088"},"modified":"2016-03-09T12:30:42","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T18:30:42","slug":"family-dinner-breaks-bread-to-build-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/family-dinner-breaks-bread-to-build-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Dinner Breaks Bread to Build Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anna Boisseau <\/strong><\/p>\n

One hundred and fifty mainly strangers gathered for Saturday night\u2019s sold out \u201cFamily Dinner\u201d at STK, a River North restaurant. The dinner, a biannual event in Chicago and 30 other cities worldwide, hopes to build community among African American professionals through sharing a meal together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to feel like they\u2019re coming home,\u201d said organizer Marquita Cunningham of the \u201cfamily\u201d aspect of the event. She said because it can be hard to meet people outside of work, Family Dinner is a chance to make new friends in the city.<\/p>\n

This is why Jasmine Trice, a first-time Family Dinner attendee, came to the event. A busy professional, Trice said she rarely has time to socialize. \u201cI want to make some type of meaningful relationships outside of work,\u201d she said
\n<\/p>\n

\"Family
Family Dinner provided a list of potential ice breakers, like \u201ctell us your earliest childhood memory,\u201d to encourage participants to veer away from work-related conversations. (Anna Boisseau\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Participants were encouraged to sit with someone they did not know and not talk about work. Each table had a list of ice breaking topics to facilitate conversation and the meal was served family style.<\/p>\n

The event is meant to meet new people, but Sinan Franklin and Lauren Keene came with friends. This was their second time at Family Dinner, and they came to celebrate a mutual friend\u2019s 30th birthday party.<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s Family Dinner, Keene and Franklin went out with people they had just met at the dinner. Keene mentioned how much she enjoyed meeting new people last year.<\/p>\n

According to organizer Demond Edwards, one of the challenges of Family Dinner is finding a venue large enough to accommodate the increasing number of attendees. He said when he first started organizing the event three years ago, 50 people attended. Now he has to find entire restaurants to rent out to accommodate demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWord of mouth helps,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

Edwards said an additional hurdle for future events is figuring out how to attract more male attendees, as Family Dinner currently is mainly female.<\/p>\n

Sabrina Stroud was invited by a friend who chose not to attend herself because of this gender divide. Stroud, a single mom, said she was happy for an opportunity to socialize with new people in the city. \u201cI\u2019m just here to meet people\u2026men or women doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandrea Brown, Sinan Franklin, and Lauren Keene (left to right) gather for a family meal. Though Franklin and Keene came to the event with other friends, they choose to sit at a table with strangers. (Anna Boisseau\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Boisseau One hundred and fifty mainly strangers gathered for Saturday night\u2019s sold out \u201cFamily Dinner\u201d at STK, a River North restaurant. The dinner, a biannual event in Chicago and 30 other cities worldwide, hopes to build community among African American professionals through sharing a meal together. \u201cWe want them to feel like they\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":36136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,675,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nFamily Dinner Breaks Bread to Build Community - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/family-dinner-breaks-bread-to-build-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family Dinner Breaks Bread to Build Community - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Anna Boisseau One hundred and fifty mainly strangers gathered for Saturday night\u2019s sold out \u201cFamily Dinner\u201d at STK, a River North restaurant. 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