About Us

The People’s Supper equips communities with the tools they need to build trust across lines of difference and to overcome sources of rupture and long-simmering conflicts. It is a program of The Dinner Party Labs, which designs approaches to community healing with those impacted by isolation and fragmentation.

Our work is based on a simple premise: Healing is a collective enterprise. Strengthening our civic fabric requires talking to each other — investing intentionally in the hard conversations that reveal us as complex and caring human beings.

We’ve learned what that takes. We know that, at the core, trust is the lubricant that propels human connection. We’ve helped build that among young people who have lost loved ones; in communities riven by politics; in schools traumatized by the loss of a student.

Our toolset, informed by those experiences and the people in these communities, allows people to talk about the things that matter most.

Our process begins by identifying a shared pain-point and careful examination of the question, “what needs healing here?” We then gather people for intentional conversations anchored in personal story-sharing, and the chance, over time, to imagine a different way forward.

Together, we help participants with diverse identities and experiences move through their mistrust and misgivings, allowing them to ask: What’s the thing that needs naming here? What are the barriers to engagement? How has our community tried to resolve these issues before? Which values resonate, and with whom? And to share stories that provide the foundation for understanding and repair.

These exchanges are not a panacea. They don’t inoculate against grief, or polarization, or futility. But those moments in which we truly connect with each other matter. They move us from isolation to association, and toward a shared humanity. Their absence diminishes us.

Our hardest conversations are the ones that matter most. Let’s talk.

Lennon Flowers

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Lennon (she/her) is hell-bent on creating spaces where humans can be human, out of a belief that nothing is done in isolation, and that self-help only works in community. She’s the co-founder & Executive Director of The Dinner Party Labs, which takes the experiences and subjects that are hardest to talk about, and uses them as the starting point to help people make connections, build trust, and form relationships that matter. She is an Ashoka Fellow, and her work has been featured on OnBeing with Krista Tippett, NPR’s Morning Edition, CNN, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and dozens of other publications. Lennon splits her time between Creede, Colorado and Los Angeles, where she lives in a six-bedroom group house with her husband, son, dog, and some of her best friends. Backpacking, North Carolina barbecue, and a good dance party rank high on her list of favorite things.

K Scarry

Director, Partnerships

K (she/her) has always been enamored with the life that can be shared around the table, and the way those spaces invite us to be fully human together. Driven by a conviction that people should have consistent space where they are welcomed in, K launched an open community meal in her hometown a few years ago that continues today. Before joining our team, she worked in a number of non-profit organizations exploring different manifestations of community: with women coming out of sex trafficking, in a fraternity house, as an associate pastor, and as a chaplain in a maximum security women's prison. She's currently finishing up her Masters of Divinity at Wesley Theological Seminary. As you read this, she's likely either journaling or doing the Cupid Shuffle — her two all-time favorite things.

Mary Pauline Diaz-Frasene

senior program Manager

Mary Pauline [she/her] grew up in a Pilipinx immigrant family with that “Did you eat yet?” kind of love, where hospitality is forefront and tangible. She brings to the People’s Supper an energy for forming communities of care, previously managing a resource center with people who were unhoused; creating and facilitating a poetry class with men in substance use recovery; partnering with church communities on justice in our neighborhoods; and gathering the occasional living room open mic potluck. She loves seeing people recognize their own gifts and celebrate them together in spaces like these. She has a Master of Arts in Theology & Culture, and her culminating work explored grief as a practice in collective resistance to unjust and dehumanizing systems. She is a cat person (but would love to see any of your animals) and actually enjoys public transit.

Tommy [he/him] learned the value of community at a young age, when his father was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. His family was supported by friends and community members, many of whom he calls family to this day. They offered him a place to spend the night when his dad was receiving treatment, they cooked him meals, they gave him rides to school and helped him with his homework. At 15, his world was terraformed by the death of his father, and his community continued to show up meaningfully as his family grieved. And now, he pursues opportunities where people gather to foster community and connect with what feels sacred to them. He’s a former barista, medical student, and elementary science educator who wants to help others feel known and valued through his work. He’s a recent graduate of Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service. As a social worker, he believes that using a strengths-based approach empowers individuals to discover the skills and assets already present in their own lives and communities. When he’s not steeped in his responsibilities, you’ll find Tommy bopping around New York City as he frequents his favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and bars. His simple pleasures include listening to music, taking photos, reading on the train, and seeing live shows—Broadway, jazz, comedy, dance, his favorite bands, you name it! When the weather permits, he loves to bike, surf, and garden too!

Rev. Jennifer Bailey

Co-Founder, The People’s Supper | Founder and Executive Director, Faith Matters Network

Named one of 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress, Rev. Jennifer Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian, and emerging national leader in multi-faith movement for justice. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Faith Matters Network, a Womanist-led organization equipping community organizers, faith leaders, and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability, and accompaniment. Reverend Bailey comes to this work with nearly a decade of experience at nonprofits combating intergenerational poverty. Rev. Bailey is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and serves locally on the staff of Greater Bethel A.ME. Church in Nashville, Tennessee. An Ashoka Fellow, Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar, On Being Fellow and Truman Scholar, Jennifer earned degrees from Tufts University and Vanderbilt University Divinity School where she was awarded the Wilbur F. Tillett Prize for accomplishments in the study of theology. She writes regularly for a number of publications including On Being, Sojourners, and the Huffington Post. Rev. Bailey sits on the boards of Open Table Nashville, World Faith, and the Healing Trust. She enjoys good food, dancing like no one is watching, and road trip adventures with her husband, psychotherapist and religious studies scholar Ira Helderman.

A Co-Founder of The People’s Supper, Jen remains an active consulting partner, and is available for speaking engagements and workshops.