WHAT WE DO

Story Sharing Potluck Suppers: Community Plate’s signature event series! A statewide series of community potluck dinners that feature recipe and story sharing, with live storytelling performance and/or readings at the end of each supper. It’s dinner and a show! Community members bring food and a story to share, and receive story sharing prompts throughout the meal to facilitate conversations and connection. After each supper a mini community cookbook is created from the dishes shared, with each guest getting a copy of the cookbook. Story Sharing Suppers take place in both public and private spaces and settings. Contact us if your organization would be interested in co-hosting a Story Sharing Potluck Supper in your community.

Support Community Storytelling: Community Plate organizes The Corner, a monthly evening of community storytelling at L/A Arts in Lewiston. The Corner is a place for storytellers of all levels and experience, to gather, share stories and build community. Each month features practiced tellers, an open mic, a mini storytelling workshop, free pizza and a dessert potluck! In 2025 Commnuity Plate will also be organizing the Maine Storytelling Muster, a celebration of Maine storytelling and story listening.

Storytelling Workshops: Community Plate is training and supporting a new cohort of storytellers through storytelling workshops, which take place both online and in person. Storytellers who participate in the workshops go on to tell their stories at Community Plate suppers, The Corner, and other storytelling events around the state. In the future we plan on offering workshops in family- and community cookbook creation, and food memoir writing.

Maine Community Cookbooks: Community Cookbooks are a key part of Community Plate’s efforts to preserve family food stories and recipes. The Maine Community Cookbooks are available to purchase at shops around Maine and at maine200cookbook.com. Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook is currently sold out, and we hope to have new copies available in 2025-26. Maine Community Cookbook, Volume 2 is still widely available. $2 from each book sold will continue to be distributed to organizations fighting hunger in Maine. In 2025-26, we will begin to compile Maine Community Cookbook, Volume 3!

Cooking is Community Podcast: In 2025-26 we will begin to produce new episodes of the Cooking is Community podcast with a focus on community cookbooks and the communities that produce them. https://communitycookbook.com/