By Savannah Bennett

One city. One table. One meal.

That’s how the local event — which is now called Gratefull — originated. 🙏

One Table, a citywide potluck that started in Chattanooga, has been renamed and rebranded to Gratefull and the concept will be made available for other cities to replicate.

“I think people really are itching to have a place where you are communally celebrating something, and you feel united even if it’s only for a couple of hours,” Causeway Creative Director Chelsea Conrad, one of the event’s organizers, said.

The same year One Table began, an organization outside Chattanooga started with the same name. To avoid confusion, organizers here chose to rebrand.

This year’s local event is expected to be the biggest one yet. 😋

📅 Nov. 19

🕦 11:30 to 1:30 p.m.

📍 The 200-block of Martin Luther King Boulevard in front of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center (This is a new location. It had originally been on MLK between Miller Park and Miller Plaza.)

🙏 The event is free and open to the public.

Although the goal is one of unity, there are countless different moving parts and people who make the citywide potluck Gratefull happen.

Fast Facts 🍗

In 2014, Causeway’s Chelsea Conrad and other staff noticed a distinct divide between the community on each side of Martin Luther King Boulevard between Miller Park and Miller Plaza.
Causeway is a nonprofit social innovation studio aimed at solving the city’s most difficult challenges.
Each year there about 150 volunteers that help with Gratefull.
This year, Gratefull is presented by The Feed Table and Tavern and includes 27 other sponsors that help with the event.
Starting in the spring, a committee of volunteers who work with Causeway meets four times throughout the year to plan.
Intensive planning starts about two months before the event.
That planning includes getting volunteer roles assigned, printing banners and obtaining permits to shut the street down.
This year’s table will be 240-feet long and consist of 30, 8-foot tables. That is five more tables and 40-feet longer than last year.

Timeline 🗓️

Summer 2014: Causeway staff had the idea
November 2014: First One Table between Miller Park + Miller Plaza
November 2015: Written about in the Washington Post
November 2016: Replicated in Huntsville, Alabama
November 2017: Replicated in Milan, Tennessee
November 2018: One Table rebranded. Renamed, rebranded, replication guide released, happening for the second year in Milan (but remaining One Table Milan) and in Nashville (Gratefull Nashville)

Estimated attendance 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦

2014: 700
2015: 800–1000
2016: 1000
2017: 1200
2018: planning for 1500 people

Feeling united 🤗

Conrad wanted a way to bring people of different walks of life together who wouldn’t have met otherwise. 🤝

“I think people really are itching to have a place where you are communally celebrating something, and you feel united even if it’s only for a couple of hours,” she said.

To help facilitate this, last year, organizers placed six colored stickers on silverware packets. Attendees who got those stickers had to find another person with the same color sticker and take a photo with them in a booth at the event.

“I think just that little nudge gives people the confidence to go up to someone that they would never meet otherwise and introduce themselves and have a conversation,” Conrad said.

Replication

Gratefull has received such great reception in the years since it first began that other cities across the nation have replicated it, and many other cities are interested in starting the event, including Washington, DC, Cincinnati, Dallas, Dalton, Florence, and Charlotte.

Quoteworthy

“I love the idea of cities around the country all sitting down for a meal at the same time. It feels like the movement is just growing and growing and it feels nice to be able to share that with people when I think people are really looking for something to bring people together right now,” Conrad said.

This year, the event is being replicated in 📍East Nashville for the first time on Nov. 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 🕦

Meredith Callis, a Chattanooga native, moved to Nashville where she wanted to start the event.

With the help of more than 60 volunteers, Callis decided to use the guide to bring Gratefull to Nashville.

“I was blown away by how many people have been actively looking for an opportunity to contribute to something like this—something that exists to unify strangers and build understanding among one another,” Callis said.

Gratefull can be replicated in any city for free, as long as the event is open to everyone.

“Someone always says to us that they love One Table, now Gratefull, because they aren’t treated like a charity case they are treated like they belong,” Conrad said.