Happy No One Eats Alone Day! Let’s Eat Together and Have Some Fun!

Happy No One Eats Alone Day! Who’s shy and eating alone? Today is the day to be a little brave and have a meal together with someone!

<A little Background of The Food Holiday>

According to National Today, No One Eats Alone Day was started in schools in Northern California with the lead of a non-profit company called Beyond Differences in 2012. The purpose of this food holiday is to encourage students to get together around the lunch table no matter what difference we have, like in culture and ethnicity…and have some fun! 

 

As I spent most of my school life in Japan, this event sounded unfamiliar actually. Our seat was reserved and it almost never happened that students switched where to sit while eating lunch. As a result, one of the pro points that I can think of for Japanese school lunch system is getting to know kids who you don’t usually play with, but the con point is  that the system is weakening decision making skill and communication skill to kids. 

 

That’s why after I enrolled in a college in the US, I had so hard time having lunch buddy.

Repeat after me, everyone! College students are busy. Period.

As soon as the class was dismissed or even earlier, like 5 minutes before the class was dismissed, most students were done wrapping things up and were ready to leave the class. They ran somewhere, either to the next class which was different from mine or to the workplace of their part-time jobs.

I never imagined saying “hey let’s have lunch together!” was that hard…As a result, I was eating alone for the first few weeks of my college life, feeling so awkward, didn’t know where to look, and didn’t feel any taste of the food. Lunch time was supposed to be relaxing time, but to me, it was so intense with multiple unfamiliar situation occurred at the same time.  

 

But one day, there was a girl who was a complete stranger to me asked if she could eat at the same table as mine. The cafeteria was a little crowded and I was about to start eating by sitting on a small table. It was my first time that I had lunch with someone else in the US. I was so happy. I could finally got someone to eat together! Usually I’m on the shy side, but since I wanted to practice my English, I started to talk to her. She was so open and friendly(this is another culture shock to me actually…a lot of people who I met in the US have fantastic communication skills! Even though we never talked or even seeing each other for the completely first time, their ice-breaking skill and keeping up the nice conversation flow were just something I must say bravo!!) so even though it was just about 30 minutes, I had one of the best lunch times ever in my school life. Unfortunately our major was different and had no same class registered, but whenever we run across each other in campus, we greeted and have chatted for a while since then.  

 

Also it was my first time learning that American burgers are sometimes eaten with a knife and fork. At that time, these cheap plastic cutlery she was holding looked silver ones and scene changed from a public community college cafeteria to a fancy Michelin star restaurant. Since Japanese burgers are small, all I had to do was hold it up, open my mouth and bite it. The cafeteria burgers were much taller than what I used to have in Japan, so how I was eating American burgers was individually eating from the top to bottom ingredients – the top bun – tomato – lettuce – pickles – patty and cheese – and finally the bottom bun(Sometimes I had to wrap it back again because I was too full. What about fries, you wonder? More than half of them became my dinner!)

 

Because of that experience, I still think she is my hero. Eating together makes mealtime much more interesting than eating alone. I agree that asking to eat together needs a little courage, especially when these people aren’t familiar to you. But, talking to someone new can open up your world. He/she may know things you don’t know, have fun, laugh a lot, and possibly they’d be your long time friend…the return is huge!

 

Dear people who come to my today’s post, who are you having a meal together today? Are you gonna be someone’s hero or you’re seeing a hero today? In either way, let’s have some happy eating time! 

 

<Some Yummy Food to Share with Your New Friend>

Having coffee as your breakfast? Vienna Coffee

It’s pizza Friday! Gluten Free Pizza with Egglife

A little sweet snacky-snack for ice breakers! White Chocolate and Lemon Oat Cookies

Enjoy home cooking and your own creation of homemade food:)