No one walked away from the all-community dinner hungry, that’s for sure. And no one walked away without meeting someone new.  

About 800 students and faculty members enjoyed an evening of good food and good conversation at the first all-community dinner on Thursday, September 11, on Grubbs Quadrangle. 

In April Student Council members Sophie Singer, Lilly Oslin, Daniel Gao, and Miles Gackstetter, each a senior now, had advocated for bringing back all-community dinners, preparing a detailed proposal for Head of School Jody Soja. Jody had been thinking the same way. Strengthening the sense of community is always on her mind. 

Thursday’s event was first of three all-community dinners scheduled for the school year. A mix of seniors, underclassmen, and faculty were assigned to each table to increase the likelihood that everyone would meet someone they didn’t already know. 

“I think it's important for students to learn as much from each other as with each other; likewise, the faculty,” Jody said in an interview the first week of school. “But you can’t do that until there is trust in a relationship, and I think it is good for our well-being to feel we are connected and matter as participants of the community.” 

Jody also said there is value in social gatherings that serve no other purpose than spending time with one another.  

Sophie said in an email that the group advocating for the dinners did so because “we felt that community is at the core of our school, and we hoped to continue to find new ways to make Loomis and its students stronger.” 

She said the dinners allow for stronger connections with more people, “which further tightens our community.” 

The proposal from the Student Council also asserted that casual conversation at community dinners would benefit students because inevitably they will “need to meet, communicate, and build connections with people they are not familiar with. ... Developing strong communication skills to share, ask questions, and learn stories of new people with different perspectives is an essential and necessary life skill.” 

Steak, shrimp, pasta, broccoli, rolls, assorted desserts, served al fresco. Yes, the grub in Grubbs Quad fed into the notion that this dinner, on a late summer night built for outside dining, was special. Filling and fulfilling. 

“I got to meet a lot of students who on a day-to-day basis I would have never been able to interact with, whether it be because of sports, classes, or just separation of grades,” Sophie said. “I got to learn a lot about the students around me. We discussed everything from each of our favorite classes to stories about our sports teams and summer activities. The conversation flowed really well, and everyone at my table was really committed to learning more about other people, which was very inspiring.”