January 18, 2011 - Fourteen students, administrators, teachers and community leaders joined together in a classroom to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy on Sunday, January 16, 2011 in conjunction with Points of Light Institute. Participants in at least fifty Sunday Suppers across the nation tuned into a live podcast featuring Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post; NBA legend and NBA Global Ambassador Dikembe Mutombo; Legendary Olympian and UN Ambassador Carl Lewis; S. Leo Chiang, producer and director of "A Village Called Versailles"; Barton Seaver, Esquire Chef of the Year 2009 and National Geographic Fellow; Michelle Nunn of Points of Light Institute and HandsOn Network and Robert Egger, DC Central Kitchen.

Polk State College Provost Dr. Sharon Miller and COL Director Bridget Fetter were among the fourteen attending the first Sunday Supper to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday.  America’s Sunday Supper is designed to gather a diverse group of people to eat together and discuss service opportunities and needs in the community. Some of the issues addressed were homelessness, healthy food for school-age children, improving public schools, creating job opportunities that promote service and monetary success, the importance of sitting down to eat with one’s own family and the importance of exercising empathy with those in our own community and around the world. 

The spirit of the evening was centered around Dr. King’s famous quote, “The ability to work together to understand each other will not be ready made; it must be created by human contact.” All participants had a chance to speak, discuss and even debate issues, but more importantly, to develop a plan to continue to work together to improve our community.