The Front Street Community Oven reimagines public space as a place of connection, healing, and co-creation. Our mission is to build a world where everyone belongs—where food and fire bridge differences, rebuild community, and cultivate belonging. Through weekly community cookouts, we bring together hundreds of people from diverse backgrounds—Mi’kmaq, immigrant, African Nova Scotian, people of colour, 2SLGBTQIA+, low-income residents, and people of all ages, races, and classes—to cook together as equals. These gatherings reduce isolation, strengthen mental health, and model inclusive, participatory community life. In 2026, we plan to expand our seasonal practice circles and trainings through a Belonging Together Lab initiative, offering trauma-informed facilitation, empathetic listening, community development, inclusive hosting, and co-design training for volunteers, municipalities, and partner organizations. Our consulting and partnerships help towns and institutions embed cooking in parks, belonging, inclusion, and co-design into their community engagement processes. We document and share our methods so other communities can create their own public hearths—places where difference becomes connection and everyone has a role to play. At its heart, the Oven is both a practice and a movement: rebuilding the village through food, fire, and fellowship, reminding us that there is no “them and us.” There is only “us.”