The smell of barbecue and the sound of jazz music greeted those who walked by the University of Florida’s Honors Village lawn on Friday night.
UF’s Office of Community & Belonging, directed by the Division of Student Life, hosted the Longest Table Event. It was open and free for all UF students, staff, faculty and any Gainesville residents.
The three connected tables on the lawn had about 150 closely placed seats, so people could foster meaningful conversations and network. The event encouraged everyone to sit by someone they didn’t know so they could start a conversation and learn from each other as they ate catered Four Rivers barbecue.
Theresa Glaeser, owner of Logo Kick, a small business in Gainesville, said she heard of the event through the UF Mentor-Protégé program. The program invites small local businesses to work with UF to help develop their companies. She and other businesses in the program received an email promoting the event.
“I’ve been to an event like this one before, so I was familiar with the concept, but I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like,” Glaeser said. “I was just excited for the experience.”
The event was part of the 2026 MLK Celebration hosted by UF's Office of Community & Belonging in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that runs through January. A canned food drive ends Feb. 6.
About 60 people attended the Longest Table Event. Little slips of paper were placed on each table to encourage discussion among guests attending the 90-minute event.
Some of these questions on the slips of paper included “What’s a tradition that is important in your family and culture?” and “What’s one experience that has shaped who you are today?”
Brady Moore and Christopher Hoffman are freshmen living in the Honors Village. Hoffman said he saw the event happening outside his dorm and asked Brady and one other friend to attend with him.
“I saw this question, how can different generations learn from one another, and I thought that it was really interesting,” Moore said. “I grew up really close with my 70-year-old neighbors. I feel like there’s such a stigma about making friends with people with huge age gaps, but how else are we supposed to learn from each other?”
Though Moore and Hoffman haven’t been at UF for long, they said they have been able to find their places at the mammoth school because of events like the Longest Table that bring students closer together.
Hoffman said he finds a connection with students by regularly attending sporting events at UF.
“I have always loved sports, but my family wasn’t big into watching them,” Hoffman said. “Now, I get to sit and watch sports surrounded by people who feel the same as I do. It makes me feel really connected in my community.”
The event also connected UF alumni with current students. Cinton Alford is president of the UF Association of Black Alumni.
“I look forward to the networking and being able to meet new students,” Alford said
The Longest Table Event at UF was certainly not the first of its kind. Smaller-scale versions of the movement began in the 2010s, and were often put on by community centers. The modern event, with truly long tables and meals, really began in the 2020s in New York City.
What began as a small dinner party, over the years, blossomed into events nationwide, with some even having 1,000-plus attendees. The Gainesville Sun reported that in Depot Park in 2016, a Longest Table event was hosted by the city. The questions on the tables centered around how Gainesville could be improved, and the event was for anyone in the community.
But no matter where the long tables are, the goal of the event remains the same: to encourage conversation and bring people together.
Erica Chow is a first-year graduate student studying art education at UF. She explained how she likes to stay up to date on things happening on the UF campus, and she attended the Longest Table on Friday because Florida State University hosted a similar event when she attended for her undergraduate degree.
“I really love how it incorporates food,” Chow said. “You get more in-depth answers and conversations when you have communion with others. I wanted to find that here today, and to talk to people I don’t know. Oh, and I wanted free food, too.”
Though the main attraction for some was the barbecue, the Longest Table Event at UF had one goal: to allow people to gather and connect through the discussion of different ideas and perspectives, in honor of MLK’s legacy of dialogue and community.