There is something powerful about food.

At the start of this year, I decided to start having a weekly dinner with a few friends. I would organize the group event, planning the meal which was often picked out of a vegan cookbook I had recently gotten as a gift from a friend. But first, I need to back up.

Weekly dinners were not a new concept. They were something that first really entered my life my second year of college. A weekly dinner was many things. Something to look forward to, something to plan for, an excuse to convince your housemate to drive you to the grocery store, but most importantly an anchor and a time to see the people I cared about. No matter if the rest of your week was kickass or utter shit, you still had the weekly dinner. You knew you would see your friends and do something together. I started these with my friend Sam. This turned out to be how I met many friends in college.

The simple act of making and sharing food is far more powerful than on the surface one might expect. For one thing, it allows you to make concrete progress towards a tangible goal, reach said goal, and enjoy the rewards, all with your friends along. And even if things go poorly and the food turns out questionable-tasting, you generally get a good story along with it. I have many memories of trying to defrost frozen in-package chicken in the microwave, to failed success.

And typically, with the efforts of only a few people cooking you can feed between 5-10 without dramatically more work. Just need to scale up. In our experience, it only is when you exceed these numbers that vastly more work is required.

It is a moment of communion with friends, old and new.

However, now that college is nearing its end some people have graduated at different rates. Sam graduated, and in the hole he left I was reminded of all that I had experienced with him. I remembered the dinners, and realized I was surrounded by many friends who I had met through similar dinners. So we brought the dinners back.

At the beginning it was just a few of us.

Then it was our household.

Then it was more.

The small dinner had blossomed into something completely other. I saw people who had never spoken before chatting and joking, over the food that I had created. I saw smiles. I saw sauces flying in each direction. I saw food being wolfed down and discussed. I saw an organic thriving entity that I brought into this world continue on without my oversight. I sat down on the couch, looked around, and felt a (rarely felt) warming sense of contentment and peace take over my heart.

A small weekly dinner came to bring me more joy than I could possibly have imagined when I started with just a few friends.

Thank you to Kai and Neil, for helping me transform my vision into a reality.

Thank you Sam, for being the start of this all.

I love you bud.