Play With Your Food Watch video

OpenSeat's Play With Your Food idea facilitates connections between children and their parents (or caregivers) through playful & conversation-focused meals

This unique gathering is designed to bring parents and children together to engage in play, conversation, and delicious food around the dinner table. As a meal campaign of the OpenSeat meal-hosting platform, this idea aims to foster meaningful connections between parents, caretakers and their children, strengthening family bonds and creating lasting memories. Why 'Play With Your Food'? Mealtime...

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This unique gathering is designed to bring parents and children together to engage in play, conversation, and delicious food around the d...

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Join the communities already benefitting from starting a Play With Your Food

You'll get guides and resources on how to bring this idea to life.

There is no funding available for this idea, but these resources will still help to make your project happen!

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I really love the fact that [OpenSeat] is thinking about kids and families because I think there's such a need for families to be encouraged to connect with each other … I like where you are going with this. I think you're only gonna be able to kn...

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Play With Your Food
Lisa Ternent

How to start a project on ChangeX

  • 1

    Create your project page

    Click the green start button to register and set up your project page. It’s quick, free and easy.

  • 2

    Complete a 30 Day Challenge

    Complete simple steps in 30 days to get your project off the ground.

  • 3

    Activate your project

    Follow the 5 Step Guide and your action plan to bring the project to life.

  • 4

    Share impact

    Share impact by posting a summary and photos and completing a survey.

Great for

  • Someone who wants to improve the quality of relationships between parents and children (ages 4-12) in their community
  • Someone who is passionate about childhood social development
  • Someone who likes working with children
  • Someone who enjoys practicing the art of hospitality
  • Those with child or family-focused experience, whether parents, teachers, occupational therapists, ECD workers, or anyone else invested in the wellbeing and education of children

Play With Your Food project essentials

5 Step Guide

  • Register on OpenSeat
  • Meet with us to discuss your plans and receive a hosting package
  • Create your event on the OpenSeat platform
  • Spread the word and manage the guestlist
  • Host the meal, and consider hosting another!

Time

Suggested: There are five main aspects to starting a Play With Your Food idea. (1) If not hosted at someone's home, finding an appropriate venue with the help of OpenSeat (30-60 minutes). (2) Creating your specific Play With Your Food event on the OpenSeat platform, writing up a description, thinking through the meal protocol that will be followed, and spreading the word through social media (1-2 hours total). (3) Organising food and drink — dependent on whether the event is self-catered or not (30 minutes to 6 hours). (4) Setting up the table and environment (30-60 minutes)(5) Hosting an OpenSeat event (around 3 hours).

Resources

More information on how to get started and any resources shared by the Play With Your Food

65 Play With Your Food projects have already been started

See where

Meet the Social Innovator

Everyone from families, friends, presidents, workers, Jesus and celebrities have used meals as a symbolic act of relationship building, even cross-cultural exchange — a way to bring together diverse groups of people in a harmonious environment. Sharing a meal together offers the opportunity for deep conversation, a thousand and one laughs, easy as well as awkward interactions — experiences that create lasting memories.

Callum Oberholzer

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why a 30 day challenge?

    The 30 Day Challenge was developed by our Team based on our experience working with communities. We’ve learned that the first weeks are critical to build momentum and get off to a good start with any community project. Teams who complete these steps within the first month are much more likely to successfully complete their project!

    The Challenge is a series of simple steps that each applicant has to complete to get their project off the ground and unlock funding, if there is funding currently available for that idea in your region. Steps include watching a video and/or reading content, having a call with a ChangeX team member, forming a team so that you have support, having your first team meeting, sharing a team photo, and sharing a project action plan.

  • What can funding be used for?

    Once funding is received it can be used to cover direct set-up costs of the new community project. For example space rental, insurance fees, seeds and planting materials, tools, training fees; pretty much any materials you might need for a project that benefits your community.

    Funds cannot be used for the costs of work that has already been carried out, costs unrelated to the setup and maintenance of the new project, payments to group members for their work on the project. Funds can’t be used for the promotion of religious causes, non-charitable activities, sponsorship or fundraising events. Please read the terms and conditions for further details.

  • How do I know if there is funding available?

    On idea pages, if there is funding available for the idea in your region you will see “Funding available” and the region listed in the turquoise box. When you first login you will also see a green banner at the top of the screen saying “live funds near you” if there is funding available in your region. The ChangeX homepage will feature those live funds near you.

    A note on the waitlist: when all the funding has been allocated to applicants, new applicants will go on a waitlist. If some applicants that are in the fund don’t successfully complete the 30 Day Challenge their funding will be released and can be then allocated to those on the waitlist. To see if you are going on a waitlist check the main fund page, ideas fully allocated will have the note “Join the waitlist” instead of “Apply to start”.

  • What is ChangeX?

    ChangeX is a platform that connects communities to proven ideas and funding.

    By empowering local changemakers with proven ideas from social innovators and accessible funding from our partners, we aim to build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable communities. Our work is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and together with our partners, we aim to impact 1 billion people globally by 2030.

    • Communities: Get the funding, resources and support you need to start impactful projects in your community.
    • Social innovators: Connect with local changemakers, access funding to scale your idea, and impact more communities globally.
    • Funders: Fund the themes and regions they care most about, with measurable impact, and at global scale.

    We believe that by bringing the best social innovations and the world’s changemakers together in a shared community, we can accelerate the spread of innovations across the world and have a bigger impact. Together we aim to unleash the potential of changemakers by enabling collaboration, by sharing knowledge and resources, by connecting changemakers across different disciplines and innovations and by opening up access to the world’s best proven social innovations to everyone.

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