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500 residents of different faiths, races and ethnicity meet in Kent to share food, foster community spirit
By Linda Golz
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Nov 26, 2009
They were all of different faiths and backgrounds, and yet they came to break bread together.
They've been doing it since 2005, but this month's gathering was the biggest one so far.
About 500 people gathered in the ballroom of the Student Center for the monthly Kent Community Dinner.
''I like the concept of the thing,'' said retired Dr. Bob Stevenson, who wore a Scottish kilt and tam. ''If we're breaking bread together, we certainly can't be fighting.''
Stevenson, who practiced medicine in Kent for about 50 years, said he has attended most of the Dinners since they were resurrected in November 2005.
Laura Mazur, who worked in area restaurants before retiring, revived the Dinners, which were popular in the 1970s but died out in the 1980s.
Mazur said the first Dinner she organized drew about 30 people.
''The reason that this all works is because we have really broad-based community support, because the community really values the diversity,'' Mazur said. ''My small part is
connecting people with people and people with the concept.''
Mazur said the purpose of the Dinners is to promote the coming together of a diversity of people regardless of race, religion or ethnicity, reflecting the makeup of the community and the university.
''We share food, conversation and music,'' she said.
Ray Heisey, retired director of the School of Communication Studies, praised the Dinners.
''I've done quite a lot of research on intercultural communication. When people with different backgrounds meet and talk, their prejudices are reduced,'' he said. ''It's especially good for the community and the university, coming together like this.''
Normally the Dinners are a traditional potluck, with people bringing in a dish to share.
However, as part of the university's International Education Week, the university provided food from around the world at Saturday's gathering.
While Dinners are always free, instead of bringing a dish, participants were asked to bring a nonperishable food item, and more than 100 crates of food were donated to the needy.
Hal Hall, who is English, said he and his wife, Lee, attend many of the Dinners.
''It's an opportunity for [meeting] a real cosmopolitan group of people we otherwise might never get to know,'' Hal Hall said.
Ibsitu Ahmed, a sophomore from Ethiopia studying bio-chemistry at KSU, said she enjoys meeting ''people from different backgrounds to see what they have to offer.''
Faisal Ridha, an Iraqi-American born in Kuwait, attends the gatherings on behalf of the Muslim Student Association at Kent. He is a sophomore in pre-medicine.
''This is great, having everybody come together,'' he said. ''It's more about our similarities than our differences.''
Each Dinner begins with the singing of grace, a blessing and a breaking of the bread ceremony.
The bread at the Dinners represent the sustenance of life and the hope that the guest will never go hungry, said W. Roak Zeller, of the Kent-Dudince Sister City Association. The salt, he said, represents friendship, loyalty and a hope that a guest's life will be blessed.
''There are spiritual underpinnings, but it's not religious,'' Mazur said of the Dinners.
She encourages attendees to socialize with one another.
There is one rule, however, and that is to respect and honor each other without trying to convert others.
Kim-Chhay Sreng, who works at KSU managing international students and encouraging students to study abroad, said the tolerance of the Dinners is in stark contrast to her formative years in the Killing Fields of Cambodia in the 1970s. When she was 6, she was sent to a concentration camp.
''I feel I'm really counting my blessings. It's a blessing'' to be able to be part of the global community, she said.
For more information about the Dinners, call 330-678-8760.
Linda Golz can be reached at 330-996-3640 or lgolz@thebeaconjournal.com.
They were all of different faiths and backgrounds, and yet they came to break bread together.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 03:09 AM, 11/26/2009
its true we all are really more alike than different...nice event
Akron, Ohio
Posted 05:16 AM, 11/26/2009
Siri's shexy. Prr.
Posted 11:23 AM, 11/26/2009
Just imagine how much better the community, town, region, country, world, would be if people's lowest common denominator wasn't animosity towards other, dissimilar people. Guess the readers who seem attracted here by blood, crime, controversy and hate, won't understand the concept of diversity enough to offer a useful comment. Maybe some could consider improving their own stock by dipping into the deeper end of the gene pool, instead of mating with their relatives, or somebody "like" them? Probably not.
AKRON, OH
Posted 12:39 PM, 11/26/2009
CHOOSING TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY IS ONE THING - HAVING IT SHOVED DOWN YOUR THROAT AND BEING FORCED TO ASSIMILATE INTO IT IS ANOTHER
Orrville, Oh
Posted 04:22 PM, 11/26/2009
It is no problem connecting people that comply with demands of Natural Law: what Mother Nature, God, or Whatever Power decreed to be the reality of the real world, God, democracy, capitalism, the US Constitution, and free, fair, and affordable commerce.
Demanding every corporation, farmer, business, outsourcer sweatshop, and nonprofit, tax-exempt, organization and Church; markets the cost; in the wholesale and retail price of his or her product and service; Of every workers, consumers, and taxpayers living (including pension and health care); enabling parents to love, nurse, nurture, discipline, protect, and provide for every child (job) they conceive; and fund schools, infrastructure, national security, government services, and etc.; with money derived from wages or independent business profit!
Highland Square, OH
Posted 01:07 AM, 11/27/2009
Loren, that couldn't of been more relevant. Thank you.
It's funny watching Kent pretend to exemplify diversity. There's a school in the ABJ's backyard that exemplifies diversity every single day. We don't need some sort of phony event to prove it to ourselves(although there is no shortage of those, either).
Canton, oh
Posted 12:10 PM, 11/27/2009
http://bayimg.com/baffkaaCb.jpg
Let's start celebratin', yo!
