To Eat at Someone Else’s Table: Strengthening Community Through Food
I think I re-wrote the body of this blog post about 15 times before I felt like I captured my full, most honest emotions. There’s no question that communities across the country have been rocked with fear, anger, sadness, distress, guilt, and hopelessness. This isn’t just made evident by last weekend’s events in Charlottesville, Virginia. It's also made evident by our president’s inability to show empathy or decipher right from wrong within a very clear display of targeted hatred. Instead, he has proven to be a momentous catalyst of increased and amplified racism, sexism, and religious discrimination.
It’s times like these that make us feel frozen, unable to fully comprehend the reality in which we’re living. I have certainly felt frozen for the past few days [frankly, months] - overwhelmed by incidents similar to Charlottesville that regularly occur across our country, and lost when searching for the best way to materialize my support for my hurting neighbors, friends, family, and acquaintances.
Turning to what I know best, I realized food was the initial starting point in my push against the actions of those who choose to make the United States an unwelcoming, unloving, and unsafe home for people.
DC is a vibrant city woven together by diverse cuisines, cultures, religions, and races. If you look closely and focus on the community outside of big city politics, there’s an incredible wealth of culture (and food) that deserves to be supported, uplifted, and celebrated every day.
The list below is full of DMV-based restaurants and food businesses that represent a variety of cuisines from around the world. If you’re looking for a way to stand with the members of your community that are most vulnerable right now, I urge you to first look locally. You are the company that you keep, so it’s important to make it one characterized by empathy, love, inclusiveness, and celebration.
*If you have recommendations, shoot me an email at dceatings@gmail.com! This list will be updated regularly.
Smith Commons & Smith Public Trust