Under the yellow and orange canopy of the trees lining Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, hundreds of Chattanoogans from all walks of life gathered Monday – for a hot plate, for a conversation, for a way to give back, for a dose of humanity.
For five years, Causeway, a local nonprofit, has hosted a community-wide potluck at one long table in the middle of the street during the week of Thanksgiving.
This year, the event – rebranded from One Table to Gratefull Chattanooga – yielded its biggest crowd yet, said Chelsea Conrad, creative director for Causeway.
“In my experience, people actually want to get to know people who are different from them, but they don’t always know how to go about it,” Conrad said previously. “At this event, we are really intentional about designing an experience that makes people more comfortable taking that step and introducing themselves to someone they would probably never meet in their day-to-day lives.”
The organization expected about 1,500 attendees this year, double the number hosted five years ago when some Causeway staff first invited corporate heads and homeless folks and everyone in between to unite together around one table.