Dining with Purpose: Building Belonging, Action, and Change
Client: Houston Food Bank
Project: DINING WITH PURPOSE
Skills: Community Engagement, Program Design, Marketing, Facilitation, Bridge Builder, Coalition Building, Partnership Development
About Dining with Purpose
Dining with Purpose is a groundbreaking community engagement initiative I created for the Houston Food Bank to foster authentic dialogue, build bridges across difference, and catalyze civic action. Born from the understanding that connection is foundational to lasting change, the program brings together a diverse cohort of neighbors, donors, volunteers, partners, and staff for a shared journey across five carefully facilitated dinners.
Each gathering is designed to:
Spark genuine connection across race, class, political, religious, and lived experience divides.
Cultivate shared understanding through structured storytelling, active listening, and dialogue frameworks grounded in the research of More in Common and the Othering and Belonging Institute.
Activate pathways to civic engagement, empowering participants to take meaningful action toward addressing the root causes of food insecurity and social isolation.
Impact and Innovation
Dining with Purpose intentionally bridges lines of difference:
Participant Diversity: 50% of participants were living with food insecurity and 50% were not, representing a full socioeconomic spectrum—from unhoused individuals to millionaires. Participants reflected Houston’s racial diversity, including Black, Latino, Anglo, Asian, African, and Refugee communities.
Ideological Balance: Republicans, Democrats, Independents, religiously observant individuals, agnostics, and those disengaged from politics were all at the table.
Multiple Stakeholders: Participants included Houston Food Bank staff, nonprofit partners, donors, volunteers, and neighbors utilizing services—breaking down traditional power dynamics.
This cross-sector, intersectional design created a rare environment where empathy, understanding, and action could take root.
“Despite our different backgrounds, the conversations felt safe, challenging, and deeply human. This program showed me a better way forward.”
—Dining with Purpose Participant, Cohort II
Results from independent evaluations (with More in Common and UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute) showed:
87% reported increased empathy toward people from different backgrounds.
75% felt more confident discussing complex topics like poverty, race, and food access.
60% took some form of civic or community action after participating.
A Strategy for Change
Dining with Purpose is part of a larger vision:
Feed the Line. Shorten the Line. End the Line.
Feed the Line: Provide immediate food assistance with dignity.
Shorten the Line: Connect individuals to stabilizing resources like education, housing, and employment.
End the Line: Mobilize collective power to change public policy and address systemic inequities.
By seeding social capital and civic momentum, Dining with Purpose lays the groundwork for systemic change—empowering participants to move from conversation to collaboration, and from collaboration to advocacy.