BRiDGE the Gap

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a 2017 UK research study shows that eating socially makes people feel happier, more satisfied with life, more trusting of others, and more engaged with their local communities. Here’s photographic evidence!

a 2017 UK research study shows that eating socially makes people feel happier, more satisfied with life, more trusting of others, and more engaged with their local communities. Here’s photographic evidence!

By Samantha Herrell, Community Director, GU Office of Neighborhood Life

To date, 90 Georgetown students have sat around the dinner tables of community members for a hearty meal and civic friendship through a program called BRiDGE. Consistent attendee feedback of BRiDGE is that students are refreshed by the simplicity of sharing a meal with their neighbors and grateful for their hospitality.

This program is sponsored and run by Georgetown University’s Office of Neighborhood Life (ONL). ONL caters the dinners from a local spot as community members open up their homes in the hopes of engaging with off-campus students. The goal is to offer at least one dinner a month between September and May.

ONL needs hosts! If this is something you’d be interested in doing, please email or call ONL staff member Samantha Herrell at smh325@georgetown.edu or (571) 723-2819. Sam will share more information with you and you can decide if this is something you want to do this month, next, or even just sometime next year.

University of Oxford research has shown that breaking bread together as a community is good for people’s health and emotional well being. As awkward or as time consuming as it might seem, it really is worth doing! (Read the journal article for inspiration.)