Students and other Athens community members gather for a monthly potluck that highlights a particular student or community organization and facilitates discussion.
The Peace Potluck was much more than a gathering to eat a hot meal.
The event, held in the basement of the United Campus Ministries, also provided an informal place for discussion of activism on the Ohio University campus and around Athens.
Melissa Wales, the executive director of United Campus Ministries, said the potluck started Fall Semester of 2014. The purpose was to have “a low key event that would facilitate discussion between student-ran organizations and Athens community initiatives.”
The groups discussed the organization's purpose and what they have done in the past and are looking to do in the future.
The potluck had different sorts of food such as Shepherd's pie, hummus, sour dough bread and soup.
Wales said they try to keep the food vegetarian so the meal is inclusive for everyone.
The 24 attendees introduced themselves and discussed how they are involved in activism within a student organization or local community organization.
Many students shared experiences regarding their involvement in social issues in Athens and abroad. A community member spoke about their involvement in the marches with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the ‘60s.
Two black activist organizations on campus are the Black Life Action Coalition and the People’s Justice League.
Olivia Busby, a junior studying African-American studies, said Black Life Action Coalition was founded after the riots in Ferguson, Missouri in the summer of 2014.
The organization was involved with the Occupy Baker Center movement last November and the Tombstone demonstration in February of this year. They are now discussing with faculty members about introducing a class at OU that would involve difficult discussions of race, sex and other issues on campus and abroad.
Members Richard Grippa and Sarah Fick said the People's Justice League, an Athens community grassroots organization, is founded on the basis of ending street harassment of people no matter their gender, race or sexuality.
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There are a number of functions that the organization has provided. Notable ones are the Safer Spaces program, which provides training to bartenders and baristas to become Better Bystanders, “Healthy Masculinity” and “Self by and For Women and Girls,” which provides gender-based classes making children in the Athens community school system aware of the harassment problems.
“What I like about this event is that it combines student activists and community activists together to discuss their different functions and find common ground,” Fick said.
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