Starting college is often a student’s first time away from home. We enjoy our freedom, but we shouldn’t weave it into everything at the risk of sacrificing socializing.
Not only does communal eating lend itself to positive mental health benefits, but it also is a handy way to save money, time, waste and washing up. It’s killing five birds with one stone. If you live in a flat of six, each member can cook one communal dinner a week. If cooking dinner is a half-hour to a full-hour job, you’d save two-and-a-half to five hours of cooking time each week. It also means someone’s more likely to eat the leftovers that you never really intended on eating, and there’s less mess to clean up if there’s only one battle in the kitchen.
More importantly, cooking and eating as a group is a ritual that fosters strong emotional connections. America scored its lowest ever in the World Happiness Report 2025, with the report highlighting that dining alone has also increased. The abundance of food delivery options mixed with busy schedules means many students order food for ease and the freedom to choose exactly what they want.
Aaron Sandel, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, draws parallels between our historical primate behaviors and modern social eating habits.
“From the primate and anthropological perspective, food is what draws individuals together and allows opportunities for social interaction and social bonding,” said Sandel. “(For) humans, eating is inextricably linked to social life because we rely on each other cooperatively, acquiring and processing our food. You see that across cultures. To be eating alone is a real loss, I think, for a social life.”
At home, we might reluctantly join our families for dinner over and over, but at college, you can spin it into your perfect evening.
“The people who are sharing them build a level of community and collective spirit that allows them to imagine the entire drinking party as … something completely abstracted from the reality around it. So they’re all on a sort of a shared emotional journey to it, a different space well outside the city of the house that they’re in, the room itself becomes a space of shared fantasy,” said Adam Rabinowitz, a classics associate professor.
Liberty Penzik, English literature junior, speaks about her experience joining the Pearl Street Co-op, where students cook lunch and dinner for each other.
“The majority of people enjoy it. Definitely, all the international students. There’s just a nice, quite family, nice fancy vibe,” said Penzik. “There’s like a camaraderie around, you really appreciate (cooking for each other).”
There’s joy to be found in bringing a group of people together through cooking.
“Even if you’re going out to a restaurant, if you’re cooking … the whole process of shopping and and cooking and then serving yourself, ideally others, is like, it’s sort of an education
in pleasure that’s really grounded in your well-being and survival,” Sandel says. “It’s an education in friendship.”
While dining together takes a little effort and negotiation, communal cooking, sharing and eating is for everyone. I’d sincerely recommend it.
Slimmon is a history junior from London, England.
