The Ferguson Center wants students to engage in conversation with prominent members of the Tuscaloosa community, and they plan to make it happen with food.

Planning for the Dinner with Strangers series began in Spring 2012, pulling ideas and inspiration from concepts like Burger Coalition and PushStart Kitchen. The ideas were then molded to fit the UA community.

“We employ a number of measurement surveys, and the data from these surveys direct our programming efforts,” Heather Roberts, programming coordinator for the Ferguson Center, said. “I thought back to an event that we hosted on campus a few years ago called 12 Strangers, and we decided to work on merging those ideas together.”

This semester will feature forums on local food and music, each of which 12 students will get to participate in.

After the 12 students have been selected, they will be invited to participate in a blog discussion on the Dinner with Strangers site from Nov. 4 to Nov. 17 with a group of local experts who will also attend the dinner.

“The idea with the blog discussion is to open up conversation before the dinners take place and allow both the students and community members involved more time to think about and discuss the topics,” Roberts said.

The local food dinner will take place on Sunday, Nov. 18, and the local music dinner will be Monday, Nov. 19.

“I would definitely consider applying,” Whitney Brennan, a sophomore majoring in food and nutrition, said. “This is a great idea, and it’s a great way to engage in the Tuscaloosa community as a student.”

The application process will be repeated in the spring for the next two discussion topics, visual expression and downtown discussions. The series will culminate at the end of the year with an after-party in March that will be open to the public.

“In designing a collaborative community-based project like this, it seemed very natural to focus on the local community as an overarching theme,” Roberts said. “From there, we picked specific topics that are relevant to students and important to the community as a whole. We’re bringing in the local aspect by asking seasoned community members connected to these topics to participate and by keeping the conversation specific to Tuscaloosa.”

Lauchlan Smith, a junior majoring in communication studies, said she would be likely to volunteer for one of the events.

“My major keeps me pretty busy with other applications and such for internships, but I think volunteering would be a good way to be involved,” Smith said. “The visual expression and downtown topics in the spring sound like two topics I’d be likely to apply for.”

Roberts said anyone interested in participating by volunteering at events or by suggesting ideas for events in the future is welcome to contact the programming coordination office.

Interested students can apply to be part of this event by completing the application on the Dinner with Strangers website, www.dinnerwithstrangersua.com. It must be turned in by Wednesday, Oct. 31, at 5 p.m.