Peace Tables
Food – Culture – Community – Climate
Pull up a chair and join us for dinner.
Peace Tables brings people together to explore the culinary traditions that connect communities across borders. Building on HFA’s Community Meals initiative, the series creates opportunities for dialogue, mutual understanding, and connection through food.
Each meal features recipes, ingredients, and cooking techniques shared across a region encompassing more than one country. These shared traditions offer a starting point for reflecting on food’s role in cultural identity and discovering the histories and experiences that unite communities across differences.
Each meal opens with a conversation led by a UMass Dining chef and a guest faculty member about the featured dishes and their cultural significance. Participants then share a meal and conversation.
The series is part of HFA’s Food – Culture – Community – Climate project.
Peace Table Events Fall 2026
All UMass community members are welcome to RSVP. Space is limited, and advance registration is required to attend.
Food Security: Rice, the Grain that Feeds the World
October 15 · 5:30 p.m.
South College Atrium
With Malcolm Sen
Before Hummus: Ground Chickpea Dishes in the Medieval Middle East
November 4 · 5:30 p.m.
South College Atrium
With Aviva Ben-Ur and Nahla Khalil
Food as a Catalyst for Tolerance and Peace
November 19 · 5:30 p.m.
Bernie Dallas Room
A concluding lecture with Darra Goldstein