<article class="content"> <p>Hello Neighbor, has proudly co-hosted three community pop-up dinners in Pittsburgh this past year.</p><p>This series grew from a collaboration with Casa Brasil, a restaurant in Highland Park serving traditional Brazilian food. Each dinner featured authentic cuisine prepared by a refugee home cook in collaboration with a local chef, providing an opportunity for the community to gather for a cross cultural experience through food. Additionally, the dinners directly provide supplemental income to the refugee families enrolled in the Hello Neighbor mentorship programs.</p><p>The first dinner was held in April of 2019 and featured Syrian cuisine made by Hoda, a refugee home cook enrolled in the Hello Neighbor mentorship program, and her mentor Dan. The dinner was intimate, with only 24 seats available for each seating but both sold out quickly. Dan and Hoda were matched together in Hello Neighbor&#8217;s first cohort and spent much of their time making food together. Furthermore, Dan is a chef and recently opened up his own restaurant, so the dinner really catered to both of their interests. The two of them shopped together and worked many hours in the Casa Brasil kitchen to prepare for the dinner which featured traditional Syrian tea, a variety of appetizers, a main dish of lamb meatballs, and finished with a orange blossom and pistachio panna cotta.</p><p>Beyond delicious food, the dinner also provides an important platform for storytelling and sharing culture.</p><p><strong>Read about the other two dinners in the series:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.helloneighbor.io/hello-neighbor-scratch-f-b-first-community-dinner">Community Dinner #2: Featuring Syrian Cuisine</a></li><li><a href="https://www.helloneighbor.io/hello-neighbor-scratch-f-b-second-community-dinner">Community Dinner #3: Featuring Nepalease Cuisine</a></li></ul><p> </article>