by Renee Wood
A visit to a traditional contrada dinner in Tuscany and quote ‘build a longer table, not a higher fence’ have inspired a new community meal to get off the ground in Healesville.
Healesville Library Children’s Services Officer Sharni Steel was amazed at how the community came together when she was lucky enough to join a contrada dinner in Tuscany in 2019.
The dinners are a tradition to bring community and regional groups together – using food to strengthen communities.
“We were looking up at this old medieval town where these communities live and they had to go off the mountain to do the dinner because the tables were so long but that was definitely a lived experience that I just thought I’d like to see more of that,” Ms Steel said.
Building connectivity and inclusivity around food has also been a key motivator behind the ‘Hot Soup Kitchen’ community meals.
“It’s about sharing and kindness and strengthening the community by sharing our resources and focusing on social inclusion,” Ms Steel said.
Ms Steel has previously operated her own hospitality business and has produced kids cooking shows during lockdowns for the library, with the desire to warm the hearts and bellies of locals always being an aspiration.
Quote, ‘build a longer table, not a higher fence’ is something that stood out to Ms Steel as to the thought behind the meal’s inception.
“It can break down a social barrier as well – my hope for at least the first three events is that there’s a lot of community enjoyment that comes out of it.”
Ms Steel will be leading the delivery of the free community meal on Thursday 9 June, Thursday 14 July and Thursday 11 August.
Now Covid-safe protocols are in place to allow the event to go ahead, with everyone welcome to join by booking into 16 spaces each over two sessions on the given day.
Ms Steel is currently recruiting volunteers to help with the events and is also sourcing local food donations, with HICCI, Toscanos and Bakers Deligh supporting the meals.
Melbourne based organisation Open Table is another inspiration behind the idea which provides free meals at community facilities using donated food that’s rescued from going to waste.
There’s hope the pilot program will expand as funding opportunities are explored to allow the community meal to be held more frequently in the future.
“The idea would be that it could become a funded activity, so that we can have a caterer come in… leading towards what OpenTable do… so using food that would have been thrown out by local business, and instead that coming to the library.”
Bookings are essential for the two sessions on the day from 12pm-1pm and 1pm-2pm.
Those interested can book via visiting or calling the library or accessing the online bookings via https://events.yourlibrary.com.au/
