Dinner Day--A Social Capital Holiday!

When not working at SCI or chasing my toddler around, I'm often doing something related to food.  Today I came across an article about Dinner Day in the latest edition of Cooking Light (the article doesn't seem to be available online, but there is a Dinner Day website).  Founded by the Smith Family in Doylestown, PA, this state holiday every second Saturday of January encourages people to invite their neighbors over for dinner.  The Smiths haved turned the premise of the Robert Frost poem around by organizing around the theme "Build Bridges, Not Fences". 

An interesting note on this event is that Joshua Smith turned this idea hatched by his parents into a state holiday for his high school graduation project.  Now there's a civics lesson that built some social capital.

The Dinner Day concept seems similar in spirit to projects like Neighborhood Day and National Night Out that SCI has been involved with.  I like the simplicity of Dinner Day, simply having a neighbor or two over to know them better than being a nodding acquaintance.  We'll have to think about promoting this in SCI communities, and/or incorporating it into some of the things we're already doing.

I'm increasingly seeing how my interests in food can be a social capital builder.  I don't think hosting on Jan. 12 Dinner Day will work out for me, but I have been starting to cook up plans for a stew supper party soon...