repas de l'amitié

20:57 Mar 15, 2021 

Thanks for your comments, I had no idea my question would generate so much discussion!

To give you more information: the "community" is a group of people which includes both supporters of a non-profit organisation and those supported by the organisation. This may include homeless people, volunteers, friends, working professionals, or people from various religious groups. The meals take place once a month in a home run by the organisation and are not intended to raise money. There is a strong emphasis on family, community and friendship. The gatherings are reasonably small as they need to fit inside someone's home.

Lots of nice suggestions here - I like Community Feast and Meet and Eat because they combine the 2 central ideas of eating and getting together.

15:25 Mar 15, 2021 

I agree re the need for more info from Asker.
My point was that I had originally believed this to be a specific event organised by a specific community, whereas it now seems that these “repas” are a regular and widespread event. Hence my assumption that there must be a generic name for these in French and, hopefully, in English as well, leading to my “community feasts”, above

15:10 Mar 15, 2021 

Ha ha, I had envisaged a posse of piranhas :0))

15:00 Mar 15, 2021 

Thanks for research but we really need some input from Asker as to who is involved here before the best equivalent can be suggested. I doubt anything with "friends" or "mates" cuts it though.

14:10 Mar 15, 2021 

https://valencedagen.fr/évènement/repas-de-lamitie-2/

REPAS DE L’AMITIÉ
VIE DE LA CITÉ REPAS DE L'AMITIÉ

Chaque année, le Repas de l’Amitié rassemble pas moins de 450 valenciens venus partager un agréable moment de convivialité. Sur invitation, réservé aux valenciens de plus de 60 ans.

14:04 Mar 15, 2021 

Repas de l’Amitié – 2019

Une belle journée d’amitié, de fraternité, et de partage.
Le 17 novembre 2019, comme chaque année depuis 25 ans, Les Amis de Séguénéga se sont réunis salle Bartholdi, autour d’un repas pour venir en aide à la Paroisse de Séguénéga (Burkina-Faso), jumelée avec les Paroisses de Sainte Anne-des-monts-et-rivières et de Saint-Léonard-en-Limousin ; la pauvreté, le manque de nourriture, et maintenant la menace du terrorisme font partie du quotidien de cette région d’Afrique.

14:02 Mar 15, 2021 

Yeah I agree with Yvonne. The meals would take on a different flavour (no pun intended) if they were organised by say, a religious community, the women's institute or whatever it's called, etc.

13:53 Mar 15, 2021 

Googling the term reveals that these are regular events throughout France (and possibly elsewhere), i.e., not something that happens just in one particular area or region (as I had presumed).

The nearest UK equivalent I can find so far is "Community Feasts". These appear to vary considerably, but seem to be a way of getting together to socialise over food, and perhaps raise funds.
Whatever, I can't help feeling that if this term isn't just a one-off as I had originally imagined, then it would be worth looking for a "standard" or generally-used equivalent in this case, rather than trying to come up with anything new and original - however amusing that might be!

12:49 Mar 15, 2021 

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "sharing meals with friends of a community". Are these friends? Are they neighbours? What exactly is the "community"? And who provides the food? Do they pay for it? Is it potluck? I don't know if any of the answers so far are right or not without knowing whose table it is and who the people are around it and where it is (in a house/a community centre?...)