Why potluck parties are making a big comeback in America | Health

Inclusion matters

The association uses its website, email lists, newsletters and neighbourhood flyers, and it enlists volunteers who walk around to make sure residents know about upcoming events. The association also has a welcome wagon to greet new neighbours and tell them what’s happening.

Kathi Eckert, a retired teacher who has lived in Hiltonia for more than 10 years, said personal contact still matters. Wearing a grey 250th-anniversary T-shirt and baseball hat, she chatted with people around the lawn before settling in with the group gathered along the street.

“We are so inundated with media, emails, ‘noise’ that it is hard to focus on what’s going on in our little world. A personal ‘reaching out’ to someone is so much more meaningful than just sticking a flyer in their screen door,” said Eckert, who informally lets neighbours know about upcoming events. “It’s not always possible, but we try.”

Even with those efforts, reaching people who are not already involved can be a challenge. Eckert said some neighbours may hesitate to attend because they assume the group is already well-established.

“We do tend to see a lot of the same people here, because I think we all have that same intent to keep community,” Eckert said. “But I have also heard that some people won’t come because they think we’re a clique. We’re not a clique unless we exclude people, and we don’t do that. We open this to everybody.”

The challenge is not only getting people through the door but creating the conditions for them to feel they belong once they arrive. For Reese, inclusivity means thinking beyond who is invited to how you’ve curated the space for the people who are there.

“If you are trying to host a gathering with the intent of getting a wide variety of people, some folks are going to have a question of, am I going to be safe there? And have you done your due diligence to make sure that I am?” she said. “These things don’t just happen, and I do think that we are in a moment where intentionality feels even more important.”

To create a space where people feel welcome and able to participate, Community Plate works to remove economic and other barriers. Guests can share a story or listen, bring a dish, buy something simple, or just come and eat. Organisers also encourage people to take leftovers home for themselves or neighbours who could use a meal. Their toolkit outlines ways to make community meals more accessible.

“We do our best to meet people where they are,” said Schatz.

But even the most intentional gatherings won’t work for everyone. Carter Florence, vice president of programmes at Meals on Wheels America, said there’s “no one silver bullet” when it comes to creating social ties. Through community dining and home-delivered meals, her organisation uses food as an entry point for social support, helping to build relationships and reduce isolation.

“For some people, the idea of eating with a group of people they may not know is actually really uncomfortable, and that wouldn’t be a very positive situation,” she said. “But the idea of someone that I’ve maybe seen periodically coming by and delivering a meal may be more beneficial.”

The individual nature of connection is what makes scaling these programmes complex. “You really want to be able to offer the type of connection that’s going to be most beneficial” for each person, Florence explained.

The idea has also made its way into policy. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published in July, highlighted how food-based activities are appearing in national and local strategies to strengthen social ties.

The report shows, for example, how Japan’s national loneliness plan includes community cafes and meal-delivery programmes. Seoul has introduced convenience stores where residents can prepare and share meals alongside accessing other forms of support. Several European countries have also backed communal-eating initiatives. The programmes differ, but they reflect a recognition that food can function not only as nutrition but also as a way to create social connections.

Back in Hiltonia, by early evening, people were folding up their chairs and packing the remains of their dishes to take home. The community’s next gathering was already planned for August: a National Night Out, where neighbours would block off the street and share another potluck.

Green and Kroon stayed until the end, helping clean up before leaving about 7pm. While at the event, their next-door neighbours introduced them to a couple who recently moved into the area. The two couples chatted about life in Hiltonia and the house the newcomers were moving into. Green and Kroon hope to get to know their new neighbours better and plan to visit them once they have finished unpacking.

It was a small example of what organisers hoped the potluck would accomplish: turning neighbours who might otherwise remain strangers into people with a reason to meet again.

While they are still building relationships in the area, Kroon said they have made some close friends here.

“It’s hard to start forming these things,” she said. “But if there’s already something established that you can show up to, it’s a lot easier.”