---
title: The Potluck Metaphor of Community Development
description: I love to eat.   And as the son of a Baptist minister, I am a connoisseur of potlucks (or covered-dish dinners as they’re known in the part of North
---

[Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Blog ](https://www.tchabitat.org/blog)

# [The Potluck Metaphor of Community Development](https://www.tchabitat.org/blog/bid/76929/The-Potluck-Metaphor-of-Community-Development)

 Written by [Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity](https://www.tchabitat.org/blog/author/twin-cities-habitat-for-humanity) | 6:00 PM on January 9, 2012

I love to eat.   And as the son of a Baptist minister, I am a connoisseur of potlucks (or covered-dish dinners as they’re known in the part of North Carolina where I grew up).  When Nieeta Presley, one of our partners in the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, described community development as a potluck meal where everyone has something to bring to the table, it got my attention.  She was using the metaphor to highlight the difference between community development and the top-down, urban development of the Urban Renewal era (the culinary equivalent being, what, baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans from a conference center warming tray?). 

I want to extend the metaphor into a typology of community development based on the many types of potlucks that I have encountered. In the coming weeks, I’ll talk about the Partially-catered Potluck, the Structured Potluck, and the Real Community Meal.

* *

[View full post](https://www.tchabitat.org/blog/bid/76929/The-Potluck-Metaphor-of-Community-Development)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2015-05-05T19:17:11.002Z",
  "datePublished" : "2012-01-09T18:00:00Z",
  "headline" : "The Potluck Metaphor of Community Development",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 60,
    "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
    "width" : 60
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://www.tchabitat.org/blog/bid/76929/The-Potluck-Metaphor-of-Community-Development",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60.0,
      "url" : "https://92650.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/92650/social-suggested-images/www.tchabitat.orghs-fshubfsLogos2020tchfh%20header%20logo.png",
      "width" : 178.57143
    },
    "name" : "Building Community Blog"
  }
}
```