Community meals
The Open Table
Meals made with estate produce bring agricultural work into relationship with the needs of the wider community.
From the estate to the tableLand · Household · Neighborhood
The work of
a life in common.
Our community takes shape in working fields, residential houses, kitchens and common rooms. What we believe is carried by what we do together.
Central VirginiaThe estate
10,000 acresFarmland, woodland & orchards
City communitiesResidential life & outreach
The Virginia estate
Land that sustains
a wider life.
The estate brings together working farmland, gardens, woodland and orchards. Produce, livestock and dairy support the community’s daily needs. Surplus supplies community meals and city outreach.
The Victorian main house stands within a larger residential landscape. Separate cloister buildings house residents; the adjacent great hall holds the community’s assemblies. Farm and orchard work belong to the rhythm of residence.
Local farming families work the outer fields. Their knowledge of the land connects its ongoing care with the Foundation’s agricultural life.
Residential life
A day is made
of shared responsibilities.
Work, meals and assembly give estate life a cloister-like rhythm. Food must be grown and prepared; rooms and grounds need care. Spiritual practice takes place within these ordinary demands.
Residential community also has a city form: large houses and former church buildings with common spaces for meals, conversation and outreach.
Beyond the estate
At home in the city.
Our residential communities connect the Foundation’s life with the neighborhoods around them. They are the bases for its public outreach.
- Richmond Virginia
- Washington District of Columbia
- Charlotte North Carolina
- Raleigh North Carolina
Places within the novel’s setting; no real visitor locations are listed.
Community outreach
Care has
practical work to do.
Hospitality is expressed through food, shelter, support and useful work. These programs form part of the Foundation’s public life in towns and cities.
Recovery support
Clear Harbor
The Foundation’s substance recovery program belongs to its wider support work. Community support meetings are part of its city outreach.
A place of transition
Threshold House
Emergency transitional housing for women leaving crisis gives a practical form to the Foundation’s work of hospitality.
Work & opportunity
Light Works
Job training and placement for formerly incarcerated people connects useful skills with a place in working life.
All places and programs described here are fictional. This site provides no real housing, recovery support, employment services or crisis assistance.
Hospitality in practice