MISSION
Community Plate is dedicated to facilitating connection and building community through a common language of food, shared food stories and recipes, and the preservation of family food histories.
VALUES
We believe that the food we cook at home forges connections across time, space, and social groups. We believe that, as so many traditions command, we are at our best when we open the tent flaps and invite everyone in to break bread together. We aspire to create the communal table that we believe everyone deserves.
Join us in imagining: family and friends, old and new, of all generations gathered together around a table—or two, pushed together—set with abundant food. The meal is a mix of old recipes and new: dishes made by great-grandparents sit next to gluten-free finds from the internet, and additions brought by neighbors and friends representing their family and food traditions. The conversation is lively, the conflicts are, for the moment, set aside. For this meal, there is a seat for everyone, gathered together and convivially sharing food and conversation regardless of political beliefs, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or economic status.
EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING
The organization and community we are building starts with inclusion. There is a seat at the table for everyone. Our goal is to bring together a diverse and vibrant community of people, and through shared stories and shared food, through listening and seeing, we set a table at which we all belong. At the same time, we recognize that stories from historically marginalized communities have been underrepresented, misrepresented, and appropriated in our common language of shared food and food histories. We strive to amplify voices that have been marginalized, share stories with dignity, and listen with respect. We will continue to use the platform of Maine Community Cookbooks to widen the lens on how we consider Maine food traditions, and we will use Story Sharing Suppers as an opportunity to bring more diverse Maine voices and stories to our collective table. We celebrate the stories through which we can find common ground, challenge the stories that may unintentionally do harm, and denounce all stories based in hatred, racism, sexism, classism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, homophobia, or transphobia.