Host a Valentine's Day dinner for local refugees with this digital toolkit
This Valentine's Day, trade in your roses and fancy restaurant reservations and show some love for your community instead.
A new campaign called Refugees Welcome❤️ — heart and all — offers tips and resources to help you host a Valentine's Day dinner for refugees in your neighborhood. The website, RefugeesWelcomeToDinner.com, includes a toolkit complete with talking points, name tags and social media graphics, all in an effort to foster a much-needed cultural dialogue.
"Refugees Welcome❤️ is an effort to bring folks from refugee and non-refugee backgrounds around a table to break bread and break barriers," the site reads.
The goal is to use food as a way to share experiences and build community.
If you're interested in hosting a dinner, the toolkit offers a checklist of things to do, from keeping a guest list for future events to sharing photos on social media. There are even sample questions for the table to keep the conversation going, like, "What was everyone's favorite food growing up?" and "What was the first dish you prepared on your own?"
You can contact local organizations to find refugee families who might be interested in joining you. In the U.S., there's a handy map of services in each state, and the International Rescue Committee can help you find ways to connect with refugees in your area.
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There are also pop-up restaurants that already put a twist on this idea, like Mazí Mas in London, run entirely by migrant and refugee mothers, and Newcomer Kitchen in Toronto, where Syrian refugee women cook meals sold online. European nonprofit United Invitations helps set up dinners with immigrants and refugees all year, and also offers tips for "how to turn strangers into dinner companions."
If you can't host a dinner this year — putting everything together in one day is no small feat, after all — you can still participate. Share your support online with the site's pre-made images and the hashtag #RefugeesWelcome❤️ . You can also use the wider hashtag #RefugeesWelcome (sans heart), which started trending in September 2015 and has become a rallying cry in support of refugees.
The global refugee crisis is still at record highs. There are currently more than 65.3 million people forcibly displaced around the world, 21.3 million of whom are refugees. Half of those refugees are children.
Negative rhetoric around refugees continues to escalate, especially in the U.S. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations and indefinitely barring Syrian refugees from entering the country. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against reinstating Trump's ban soon after, but the lives of many refugees continue to hang in the balance — and the treatment of refugees resettled in the U.S. remains shaky.
"Today, we are witnessing the highest levels of displacement the world has ever seen," the Refugees Welcome❤️ site reads. "By creating a space to share food and conversation, we hope to build greater solidarity within communities."
[H/T Global Citizen]
Topics Social Good
Matt Petronzio was the Social Good Editor at Mashable, where he led coverage surrounding social impact, activism, identities, and world-changing innovation. He was based at the New York City headquarters from January 2012 to April 2018, and previously worked as the assistant features editor.
