Begun overdinner.Kept by neighbors.

In 2007 a group of Memphians organized a dinner with one intention: to bring people of all faiths together to break bread. No panel, no program to sign, no conversion on anyone's agenda. Just a meal, and the discovery that the room was easier to be in than anyone expected.

It happened again the next year, and the year after. By 2009 the gathering had grown enough that the congregations and volunteers behind it decided to take the effort further. That is when Memphis Interfaith was formally established.

The Annual Interfaith Dinner remains the center of the year. It is held during the Islamic month of Ramadan, and each year distinguished speakers from different traditions address a shared theme before the room eats together. Through themes like service and sacrifice, participation has grown by hundreds since the first dinner.

The rest of the year the work moves outward. Interfaith volunteers gather to package meals that ship to areas of need across the Western hemisphere, and closer to home for local relief. In January 2026, more than forty volunteers packed 350 meal boxes at Crosstown Concourse in a single morning.

Memphis Interfaith is a volunteer service organization inspired by Islamic values, and it is open to everyone. Those two facts sit comfortably together. The tradition that animates the work is the same one that commands hospitality to the stranger, and the aim has always been for Greater Memphis to find the best in every faith tradition, starting with the people sitting beside them.