As Thanksgiving Day approaches, community members are feeling connected after forming new relationships at Palo Alto’s first “Friendsgiving” event, which took place Saturday at the Lucie Stern Community Center.

Hosted by the Magical Bridge Foundation and Kafenia Peace Collective, the dinner featured community-building exercises set amid dancing, music and food from local restaurants. According to Emma Villarreal, director of community programs at Magical Bridge, the event aimed to fill a missing bond between people across town.

“I just felt like we needed a sense of community,” Villareal said. “Since COVID, we kind of lost that, and it’s hard to meet people in the community. I’m excited to create multicultural, multi-generational connections.”

Admission tickets, $20 per person, were sold out days before the event. Villareal said she was surprised by how excited the city was to share the holiday spirit.

“It just shows how people kind of share that same interest I had initially, to want to create community,” Villareal said. “We are creating a place where we can all just come together as one. I was really happy that people were passionate about that.”

Attendees were split randomly across tables, each with a host seated to ask conversation prompts, provided by Kafenia. Friendsgiving co-organizer Harriet Stern said the event was planned to guide others towards meeting new people.

“Instead of just showing up at a community event where you don’t know anyone, this event is designed to help you branch out,” Stern said. “They [Kafenia members] are going to be the ones who are doing the guided conversation so you get to know your table mates.”

Mary Jane Moutsanas, the founder of Kafenia, said they aimed to provide bonding opportunities, especially in a goal-focused culture such as Palo Alto.

“We wanted to have a chance for deeper connection,” Moutsanas said. “I grew up here and I felt sometimes it’s very achievement-oriented in Palo Alto. I wanted a place where we could be more genuine and share with generations because we tend to hang out with our own group.”

And it seems the event succeeded in its vision, if the attendees’ feedback was any indication. According to attendee Shara Sedaghatpour, she believed the dinner allowed her to form new relationships.

“It’s amazing how there’s so many people from so many places coming together to enjoy a meal and to connect in every way possible,” Sedaghatpour said. “It’s a very sweet place to be.”

Attendee Karla Moreno said she appreciated the opportunity to meet people in a genuine, personal way.

“It was really interesting just to get to know them as a person, not as a business owner or anything like that,” Moreno said. “It’s just so vibrant here and I think a lot of people were looking to just learn more about each other and [their] neighbors.”

The event united longtime residents as well as newer members of Palo Alto, as attendees ranged from living in Palo Alto their whole lives to just moving in. According to Ahmet Tokio, who moved from Germany two months ago, Friendsgiving helped him with the struggles of fitting in.

“I thought that it would be a challenge to integrate into a new society because I was leaving my friends and family behind,” Tokio said. “It feels like this event kind of boosted a timeline that would have taken a couple of years. Due to the work of others, I was able to connect so quickly to a new neighborhood, to a new set of friends, to a new family. Meeting such wonderful people so quickly made me feel like I am home.”