DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2023.1.9| PORTEOUS: FOOD, DRINK, AND COMMUNITY BUILDING_ INSIGHTOUT 1(2023) 56 you’re all right, and offered a cup of tea.[…] You’re made to feel welcome, and you’re spoken to.” (Alex, staff member and former volunteer/service user) Being greeted and offered a hot drink by a friendly face as soon as you walk into the museum space is a small gesture, but our research found that our case study successfully used such small acts to facilitate deeper, long-lasting connections and have a trans­formative impact on the lives of service users. “For some people, being able to come along and have tea and something to eat is really, really im­portant—from a social aspect but also, you know, for people who are living in food poverty, to be able to come and have that. And for people who are living on their own, to be able to share lunch with someone is really important. I think having that really helps create the atmosphere, and I think it helps people then relax and be able to en­joy[the space/event].” (Rebecca, staff member) The Symbolism of Material Objects Symbolic material objects linked to food and drink were also highlighted in our research as part of a process of connecting with the women’s museum and its work. For example, a giant teapot used at group events was described as“quite an icon” by one par­ticipant. China teacups were also important for buil­ding community and for making people feel valued in the space as they felt“special”: “They would feed back and say the cups are really special: getting to use that proper china is really special. And we had that all the time, any time the­re was a conference or an event, that they had the proper china. People rave about it.” (Eve, community development worker) These material objects often held nostalgic memo­ries, especially for older museum users, of crockery only brought out on special occasions by a mother or an aunt. They were metaphors which helped to visu­ally anchor the organisation’s core goals around wel­come, acceptance, and reclaiming women’s history. Community Building through Food and Drink Embedding food and drink-based practices also hel­ped to create an informal museum environment whe­re groups felt comfortable to engage with material culture during workshops and events. Rebecca notes that these practices helped to ad­dress social issues such as food poverty or social iso­lation. They also helped service users relate to one another and facilitated an atmosphere of mutual support, even within museum events: “It’s not a one-way support network, and quite often, as you know yourself, when you get a tea break and you all go into the kitchen and you’re all blethering to each other is when the real magic happens, you know?” (Iris, service user) “Really, it was the cups of tea, like genuinely, be­cause…[…] I felt like it was sort of a channel to talk to people and to get that kind of range of expe­rience. And because it allowed a different kind of conversation to happen.” (Poppy, service user/volunteer) As Poppy observes, sharing a cup of tea with some­body helps to put people at ease and makes space for dialogue. It also created a useful time for staff/ volunteers to offer individualised further support(for example, with literacy or English as a second langua­ge) where necessary. Finally, the symbolism of food and drink also became important to maintaining the museum’s connections with service users during the Covid-19 pandemic. As the physical space closed, people missed the convi-