Farah Al Chammas: Finding Home and Community At the Dinner Table
Farah: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! A pre-pandemic Harvard study reports that 61% of young adults are lonely frequently to almost all of the time. Unfortunately, COVID didn’t exactly cause this issue, but further amplified it. Loneliness has been a brewing epidemic plaguing society, not only in the US, but around the world, and specifically in countries with growingly industrial societies. It’s an issue that costs the US alone $7 billion extra every year. Loneliness is caused by people not knowing who to hang out with, when to hang out, and what to do/where to go. Okel solves this by facilitating the curation, scheduling, and reservations of more meaningful meals at local restaurants for new and old friends, for individuals and communities.