Reflecting on Dinner Hospitality with our Global Community

Dinner Hospitality

Dinner Hospitality: One of our favorite ways to connect international visitors to our local community. How many times have we heard the adage about how breaking bread with people brings us closer? Sharing a meal transcends language, culture, and personal differences, to provide a space of gathering. Creating memories with others revolving around food and sharing a meal, that truly universal experience, allows us to share an experience and cultivate mutual understanding for others, no matter what our preconceived notions about them may be.

Which is why the San Diego Diplomacy Council was so thrilled to receive the support of Global Ties U.S. and Marriott International for our dinner hospitality initiatives.

SDDC and our community are not new to dinner hospitality. An opportunity exclusively available to our members, dinner hospitality is highly regarded as one of the biggest highlights of membership. However, the experience is not without its barriers. While we adjusted our membership to a pay-what-you-can model in 2022 to increase the accessibility of membership, the expectation with dinner hospitality is that the San Diego community is hosting our international visitors. Whether that be preparing a home-cooked meal, putting together a picnic spread, or paying for dinner in a restaurant, there is a time and financial burden involved in the opportunity.

A New Opportunity

Luckily, Global Ties U.S. and Marriott International recognized this, and opened a grant opportunity for organizations around the country like ours to support dinner hospitality. We were thrilled to receive financial support through this grant to open the benefits of dinner hospitality to a wider audience.

Instead of reserving the opportunity for a select few, we decided to open the doors to the San Diego Diplomacy Council – and then some. This opportunity was all about community, partnerships, and forging new connections. Why not take that to the next level?!

We reached out to local organizations with feet on the ground in communities we wanted to invite to our dinner hospitality opportunity.

Incorporating partners

The first thing we needed was a location. A small, locally-owned business, able to make delicious food and provide space for people to connect, was imperative. Luckily, we found the perfect partner in local restaurant Key & Cleaver. A few blocks away from the San Diego Diplomacy Council offices, Key & Cleaver takes pride in sourcing local ingredients from sources that they know personally – a great foundation to our dinner hospitality event.

We also wanted to find a partner organization with connections to the local community, who could help us spread the word amongst San Diegans who might not usually consider getting involved with dinner hospitality. We found the perfect partner in City Heights CDC. A local nonprofit organization, they serve the City Heights neighborhood by creating affordable housing, promoting economic development, and advocating for safe, sustainable transportation in the neighborhood.

The final key in our dinner hospitality event was welcoming a group of international visitors to San Diego! We decided to highlight our delegation of entrepreneurs from Uzbekistan, spending three weeks in San Diego through the Uzbekistan Business Leaders Professional Fellows Program with American Councils. Hosted on the final Friday of the group’s time in San Diego, the evening was intended to be a celebration of their successes, new friendships, and memories created with our community.

Coming together

We came together on the evening of August 16, having shared the opportunity far and wide. We wanted to ensure that everyone knew that they were welcome, and that the invitation reached audiences that didn’t traditionally connect with the San Diego Diplomacy Council and our international visitors. And in that regard – we feel that the evening was a great success!

The room was full of new faces and great conversations. We were thrilled to have introduced so many new people to the San Diego Diplomacy Council, and the joy that can come from connecting with new communities, whether they be local, or joining us from the other side of the world. Great music and delicious food on Key & Cleaver’s rooftop patio, while enjoying the type of summer evening that San Diego does so well made for a truly unforgettable dinner hospitality experience.

Thank you to everyone who showed up to support the San Diego Diplomacy Council, our Uzbekistan Business Leaders, and the importance of dinner hospitality in cultivating opportunities of citizen diplomacy and promoting peace and prosperity around the globe!