Enjoying A Family Supper

While our lives may be busier than ever, the value of sitting down with friends and loved ones over a home cooked meal remains true. Early Show Contributor Debbye Turner met an Oregon couple who is giving their friends a place to connect in an old fashioned way. They call it "family supper."

It's not a holiday or a special occasion. Three times a week, caterers Michael Hebb and Naomi Pomeroy host a dinner where the theme is always good food and great conversation -- family style!

"It comes from sitting down to dinner every single night with my family. We never, no matter how busy everybody got…, it was every night," says Naomi.

Sensing they were missing this ritual in their adult lives, Michael and Naomi began cooking dinner for friends in their home twice a month. Guests were encouraged to bring someone new the next time they came. A year and a half later, the mailing list for "family supper" has reached 1,500 people. The dinners outgrew the couple's home. Now they gather in the space where they run their catering business. But, the intimacy remains.

"They come in right through the kitchen door," says Michael. "Because when you're eating at someone's house what do you do? You come in the back door and walk in. You come in the back door. Yeah."

How do they think the dinner serves to allow people to make connections with one another?

"Well, I mean they have to connect with one another. That's part of how it works is that there's a big platter of food coming your way and it's sometimes too heavy for one person to even hold on their own," explains Naomi. "It's the metaphor that runs through the whole experience. There is a civility among strangers that needs to occur and I think that's a powerful experience," adds Michael.

There are a few ground rules. The dinners are casual and intimate, but the only way to get in is to be invited by someone who's attended before. And guests aren't told what they'll eat until they get there.

"Like if you went to your friend's house for dinner, you don't call her and say, so what are we eating tonight? You just show up and you trust that you're going to have great food," says Michael.

The purpose and meaning of the night is not lost on those who attend.

"It's a totally different way to gather with people-- to sit down with people and some of which you know and some which you don't know, and sort of pass food like you did when you were a kid," says guest Linda Johnson.

"This is really a rejuvenation of dinner parties and dinner parties have really gone out of style in this country. And I think this is a wonderful way of having them come back," notes guest John Shipley.

And because everyone is related by some degree of separation to the first 30 people they invited to the original family supper, there is a thread of connection with anyone who walks through the door.

The cost for the meal is only $20 a person and the current reservation list is filled until February.