community meetings

I have a confession to make: Before  a few months ago, when I sat down in the Sabathani Community Center's auditorium to hear my fellow neighbors voice their concerns and ask questions about the Seward Co-op's second location tentatively set to open on 38th and Clinton, I had never attended a community meeting. For all my desire for community closeness and professed interest in local issues, this was the first time I actually joined in on an open discussion about my immediate community’s future.

Marrnita’s Table uses the dinner table as a means for bringing people together and solving some of the community’s toughest issues and food is definitely the common denominator for all Marnita’s Table events. Founded five years ago by husband and wife team Marnita Schroedl and Carl Goldstein, Marnita’s Table’s (MT) mission is to bridge cultural, generational, and socio-economic differences by the use of “intentional social interaction”.

The way it works: a community or an organization brings to MT a topic of concern such as race, isolation of refugees, or high school graduation rates and then staff and volunteers “set up table”. MT creates an intimate dinner setting at either Marnita and Carl’s home, or one of the Table’s many volunteers will host the dinner and conversation.