One of the best ways to build community is to host a sustainable dinner party. And instead of just inviting the friends you already know, how about inviting neighbors new to your area or people you find interesting and would like to get to know better?

If you’re looking for recipes, try Sustainable Table’s recipe section for some mouth-watering sustainable dishes. In the future, we plan to bring you full menu ideas for planning an entire meal – from start to finish.

If you have a party, let us know how it goes! You can post something up in The Parlour, our discussion forum (where you can also post photos), or you can email us at info@sustainabletable.org. We’re trying to start a section of personal stories from people like you, so others can read about your experiences going sustainable – it’s another way we’re trying to build community.

Ideas on what you can do at your dinner party include:

1. Invite friends over for a home cooked, locally grown meal. Buy all your ingredients within a certain radius – say 100 miles. Then challenge your guests to do the same. Perhaps turn it into a rotating dinner party that is hosted at a different house each month.

If buying all local ingredients is impossible, start with one or two items for your meal.


2. Have a locally-grown progressive dinner party. It’s just like a progressive dinner party, only as much food as possible is bought from local sources. One guest/couple host appetizers at their house; the next guest hosts first course, next guest second course, another guest makes dessert. You can stretch this out to 5 or 6 houses if you want (that would be a very long dinner party!) or you can stick with 3 or 4.

3. Parties with a mission (and quite a few laughs!) Have your guests meet you at your local farmers market. Pair people up or put them into several groups (it’s best to mix up the groups so people are matched up with others they don’t know or don’t know well – it breaks the ice much quicker).

You have several options when doing this. You could originally assign each group a certain type of food, e.g., one group will buy appetizers, another will buy the main course, and others such things as vegetables and dessert. Or, you could simply give each team an amount of money and simply wait and see what comes back. (This is riskier but can be a lot of fun when it comes to cooking, as long as everyone has a sense of adventure….)

Either ask everyone to pitch in a certain amount (say $10 or $20) or give each group a certain amount of cash. Set a time and tell everyone to go through the market and buy whatever they want for the amount of money they were allotted. Meet back at your house, put all the food on the table, and start pulling out cookbooks and turning on computers, or come up with your own recipes.

Either create new teams or keep the same teams and have people help create the meal. You could task one group to do appetizers, one main course, another vegetable and sides and another dessert. Make it even more creative and ask them to name their dish and serve it with “flair”. Have everyone vote on the best dish.

If you’re a good cook, this is an excellent way to share your knowledge about cooking, or, if you’re a bit food challenged, this is a great way to learn about cooking.

4. Turn your dinner party into a cooking lesson. This is similar to the previous dinner party, but you buy the food in advance. Have your guests help prepare the meal at your house. You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn about cooking from doing it with others – from peeling potatoes to types of herbs to put on vegetables. Involving everyone in the cooking process somehow makes the food taste better!

Make it even more fun by not determining the menu beforehand. Buy the ingredients you think you’ll need and when everyone arrives, bring them into the kitchen and decide together what the best dishes are that you can make with the ingredients you bought. Have a couple sustainable cookbooks on hand to thumb through for inspiration. And don’t be afraid to wander from the recipes to try something new!

Or be daring and create new dishes with your guests. Don’t allow anyone to use a cookbook and see what recipes you can come up with. If they turn out good, save them. Over time, you could end up with your own cookbook.

Involving others in the cooking involves others in the eating. By sharing tips and insights with each other, you’ll learn a lot about what works and doesn’t work – and you’ll have a very enjoyable evening while you’re at it!

5. Invite a chef to cook for you. Invite a local chef to your house. You and your guests will help prepare the food and assist the chef, but the cook can show you proper ways to cook the dishes you choose to eat that night.

You might have to pay a professional chef to do this, but see if there’s a culinary school in your area. You might be able to find some students who are willing to come so they can get practice – and perhaps credit – cooking for you.

6. Have an old-fashioned pot luck at your house, but instruct your guests to buy at least one ingredient from a local source. Challenge them to try to make the entire dish from local, sustainable ingredients. Ask them to bring the recipe and information on the farm where they bought the local ingredient(s).

During the meal, ask everyone to share their information. This is a great way to find new farmers and outlets that sell local, sustainable foods.

Don’t limit yourself to just your friends. Try this with your church group, ladies club, bridge club, PTA groups or any group you belong to. Or advertise and start your own dinner group.

7. Fondue is fun! Have a locally-raised, sustainable cheese and/or chocolate fondue party. You supply the fondue – ask your guests to bring local ingredients to dip into the pot. (If you’re having a girls’ night, combine your fondue fun with pedicures and manicures. It’s a great way to relax, enjoy good company and eat some great food!)

Don’t forget, we’d love you to share your experiences in The Parlour. Tell us what worked for you and what didn’t work. If you come up with a different type of dinner party, let us know and we’ll add it to this list. Share photos, post recipes, help others jumpstart their own dinner parties. And if enough people are interested in having these parties, we can start virtual dinner parties, where we all decide online what we want to do, go offline and have the meal with friends, then all come back to discuss what worked and what didn’t work.

Also check out Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen – by Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry. Learn how to turn your kitchen into an organic kitchen. And build community by having a grub dinner party in your area!

If you’re looking for a conversation starter, try Organic Valley’s Earth Dinner Cards, to spark discussion about food, farming and our connection to the land and ourselves.