The Tig Archives 10 / 13 / 2014

Hosting a dinner party is one of life’s pleasures I relish in most – the relaxed revelry, the inadvertent kitchen mistakes that your friends brush off like Bridget Jones’ blue soup, and the breaking of bread as a community – your close knit circle who opt to stay in vs going to a restaurant so you they laugh a little louder, help themselves to extra servings of (well) everything, and play late night poker with reckless abandon. Any time you host a little soiree, friends ask what they can bring. A bottle of wine? Maybe a dessert? So this past Friday when my friend, Nick Sorbara and I hosted a FEED supper, we took a cue from Lauren Bush, founder of FEED, and flipped this idea on its head.

Instead of asking anyone to bring something, we simply asked that they RSVP by making a donation of at least $1.10 that would go toward the FEED project – a small donation that would provide ten meals to people in need. You can do the math – friends who RSVP’d with $10 were personally responsible for feeding close to 100 children, $20 close to 200 people, and so on. We knew our friends would rally to the cause not simply because of our communal love of cooking (and eating), but because we share a spirit of giving back.

With donations from all of our guests, Nick’s sister Carla cooking up a storm (can we please discuss her beautiful ravioli?), and food contributions from Cumbraes, SUD Forno, and The Harbord Room, it was a FEED supper for the ages. I’m very proud to say that with all of the generous donations, our dinner party raised enough to provide 6,000 meals to people in need. 6,000 meals. It leaves me absolutely breathless.

I encourage you to do the same whether you have a simple pizza party en casa or go to a restaurant to clink glasses- wherever the locale – to take something as ordinary as a dinner party and shift the focus to giving back. You can learn more about the FEED Project here, and everything you need to host your very own #FEEDsupper.