Guess who is coming to dinner?

Eating is a very basic human activity- something we all do. But it is also a very social activity- something we do with friends, family, and often to meet new people. Cultures across the world mark special events in the calendar with celebratory meals or banquets. We even devise particular foods for these sorts of events- hot cross buns for easter in the christian calendar are the most obvious recent example. The Welcome Dinner project is using some of these basic features and ideas to bring together people newly arrived in Australia with others who have been here for a while, over the dinner table, enjoying each others food as a way of learning about each other. The founder of the project, Penny Elsley, spoke with Thursday Drive’s Mick Paddon about where this seemingly simple but very effective idea came from and how she has been putting it in place in Sydney and around the other capital cities in Australia.