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The Big Give is an event supporting central Victorian community groups. The Bendigo Advertiser will be profiling several of the registered campaigns each week until the initiative ends with a 24-hour giving day on September 1.
Australia is a melting pot of cultures.
A Welcome Dinner Project is encouraging people to embrace those new to their communities by dipping into those cultural influences.
Each dinner guest contributes a dish to the shared meal.
Bendigo hosted its first welcome dinner in June, to coincide with refugee week.
Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services community development worker Diantha Vess said more than 140 people attended the community event at St Paul’s Cathedral Hall.
“So far that’s the largest community dinner in Victoria,” she said.
“It just shows that people are really keen to meet each other and make a connection.”
The Bendigo event’s success has inspired a series of more intimate dinners, to be hosted in the homes of volunteers.
The recipe for each home gathering is as such: a host, eight established Australians, eight new arrivals, and two volunteer facilitators share a meal.
“The first thing that happens is the dishes are introduced,” Ms Vess said.
“It’s encouraged that the dishes mean something to the person – whether it’s their culture, their family or the first dish they learnt how to make.
“Everyone is really excited to learn about the food.”
The facilitators are there to guide the guests through activities and ensure the dinner conversation is positive for all involved.
One of the most common questions people ask when they meet someone new – “What do you do for a living?” – is discouraged at these parties.
Asking a newly arrived person how they came to be in Australia is also taboo, as some of those experiences might have been traumatic.
Attendance at a welcome dinner is free, but Ms Vess said there were costs involved in co-ordinating the events.
She said the Welcome Dinner Project had averaged out the costs and calculated that it comes to about $30 per dinner guest.
Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services has launched a Big Give campaign in support of the Welcome Dinner Project.
It seeks to raise $1000 to support further events.
According to the campaign page, each dinner takes more than 10 hours to plan.
Ms Vess said people could register on the Welcome Dinner Project website if they were interested in attending or hosting an event.
They could expect to be contacted by email with upcoming dinner dates.