As the birthplace of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Pittsburgh knows a thing or two about being a good neighbor. But Hello Neighbor, a Homewood-based nonprofit that provides support to immigrants and refugees, takes it a step further. CEO Sloane Davidson and her team make it a mission to uplift Pittsburgh’s newest neighbors in thorough and culturally sensitive ways, helping them find healthcare, housing, education and more. At a time when tensions around immigration reform and immigrants’ roles in their communities are higher than ever, in-person programming is one of the best ways to let people know about Hello Neighbor’s mission. That’s where the Neighborhood Nosh, the fundraiser Davidson has spearheaded over the past few years, comes in.

Hello Neighbor’s Neighborhood Nosh Will Put the Fun in Fundraiser

“The concept of the event is framed around giving a few awards to dedicated supporters of Hello Neighbor in a few categories. We have 4 awards we give out New Neighbor Champion, New Neighbor Advocate, Good Neighbor, and Volunteer of the Year,” Davidson said.

The Neighbor Champion is a community leader in the town of Duquesne, Brian Stowell, who Davidson describes as a “great person and great teacher.”

The New Neighbor Champion will go to controller and mayoral candidate Corey O’Connor, who Davidson said has been a supporter of Hello Neighbor from the get-go. “He came to the very first Hello Neighbor event when I had literally just named it Hello Neighbor and set it up at the Shop [former venue in Homewood],” Davidson said.

This year’s Good Neighbor is Kimpton Hotel Monaco, which has employed many of Hello Neighbor’s clients. “They say that they no longer have trouble hiring, as many other businesses downtown have,” Davidson said. “There’s sort of that narrative in the region, but Kimpton has been really vocal that they’ve solved that problem. They’ve found a way through this negative stereotype our region doubles down on. They’ve been fantastic.”

The Volunteer of the Year in 2025 is not just one person, but a whole collective: The Church of the Ascension in Shadyside. “Usually we only do one, but Church of the Ascension far and away has been our biggest supporter for volunteers, so, we’re highlighting all of them!” Davidson said.

Celebrating Pittsburgh’s Immigrant-Owned Restaurants

But the Neighborhood Nosh is not just about community-members receiving awards. Davidon stressed it’s also meant to be fun, something many fundraisers miss out on. “The feedback I got for days afer the first one was ‘that was actually really fun.’ And I was like ‘I know, I’ve been to so many of these that are terrible,’” Davidson—who has a long career in philanthropy and digital marketing and has attended many a fundraiser—said. “But truly, it’s a good time and people were straight up shocked that that was even possible. I’m really proud of that and I think it’s a really big differentiator. We put the ‘fun’ in fundraiser.”

Part of what makes the party such a good time is the food. Davidson explicitly picks venues where Hello Neighbor can bring its own food. The 2025 Neighborhood Nosh will feature local Syrian, Afghan, Guatemelan, Uzbek, and Congolese restaurants, among others. “I’ve been to as many rubber chicken dinners downtown as you,” Davidson said. “This is not that.”

Many of the featured restaurants are employers for Hello Neighbor’s clients. “We used to do more of a cookie table style with just sweets from immigrant-owned restaurants, but there was too much of a sugar crash,” Davidson remembered. “People were just crawling out the door.” So, the last few iterations of Neighborhood Nosh have had full entrees with both savory and sweet options, plus an open bar and live music, including this year from an African musician currently on a world tour, Davidson hinted.

A Way to Find Joy in Darkness

Rather than scale tickets and have VIP access, Davidson opted to make the tickets all one price. The tickets for the Neighborhood Nosh are a flat 150, which, in today’s economy is essentially the price of one meal at a moderately-priced restaurant. Over 80% of every donation will go directly to supporting Hello Neighbor’s programming.

It’s undeniable that 2025 is a fraught moment for conversations around immigration. “There was a lot of talk of ‘Do we do this event at all? What is there to celebrate this year? But I ultimately do believe that we need to highlight our clients and our incredible businesses and our community neighbors who are putting themselves forward to help their new neighbors,” Davidson said. Events like the Neighborhood Nosh put a face to the advocates doing the work to help refugees. It puts in real context the fact that refugees could be your neighbor, someone you share a meal with.

“I hope people leave the event with a feeling of hope, community, and resilience,” Davidson said. “Hope, because despite the politics, media, and hardship that many of our immigrant families are facing, we’re still human and we can still come together and celebrate.” She’s going into the Neighborhood Nosh with one of her personal philosophies: “Even if 23 hours out of a day can be hard, can you have 1 hour of joy?” For a good cause, the Neighborhood Nosh promises far more than just one hour of joy.

Story by Emma Riva
Photo courtesy of Hello Neighbor

Subscribe to TABLE Magazine‘s print edition.

Until recently, Leslie McAllister was the owner and in-house tarot reader of Ceremonial, a Point Breeze ritual and ceremonial lifestyle store. She curated tools, companions, books, supplements and candles for sacred ceremonies. Though the shop is closed, the importance of ritual remains prominent for Leslie. Ritual is “about creating and interacting with the sacred. It’s about making something special, to give it a greater power. It is useful in helping us humans to make the everyday intentional,” explains Leslie. She likens it to the way Japanese culture creates divinely sacred tea ceremonies, with details right down to how to steep the tea and pour the tea. We can all add that level of intention in our lives by following our intuition.

Leslie adds, “By listening and honoring your own inner wisdom you begin to see how you already, organically, find ritual in your daily life. We humans need this, especially now, and it’s one area of our life that many have forgotten. To bring it back can really help to shift consciousness. I have the honor of witnessing my community find their own innate ritual practices. And often, they have been ancestrally/generationally handed down. It’s a definite ‘wow’ moment for them.”

An Autumnal Equinox Bath Ritual

Introduce a bit of ritual into your life and prepare this Autumnal Equinox Bath on the fall equinox, which will occur on September 22 in the Northern Hemisphere.

Autumnal Equinox Bath

---

• Author: Quelcy Kogel

Print Recipe

Description

Take the most relaxing bath with the renewing energy of autumn. 

---

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• Relaxing music
• Cedar bundle or preferred sacred smoke
• 2 cups Pink Himalayan Salt
• 1 tbsp honey
• 5 to 10 drops frankincense essential oil
• 5 to 10 drops bergamot essential oil
• Quartz crystal and carnelian
• 2 white taper candles
• Your favorite fall flower
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 orange, sliced
• 1 bunch rosemary

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

---

Instructions

1. Prepare this bath on the equinox. Alternatively, you can create this experience as a foot bath. Fully clean your bathroom and then shower/tub. Light your sacred smoke and cleanse the space to clear energy and prepare the space for the bath. Draw your bath. Drop in the ingredients, and stir your bath with the intention for clearing and charging your physical body and auric field.
2. Place the quartz in the water and say, “By water and earth, I am now clear of unwanted energies that keep me from my highest and best good.”
3. Place the carnelian on the tub’s ledge and say, “Carnelian, may your passion, vigor and vitality warm me this season and keep me rooted in the stamina and motivation I need.”
4. Light the candles and say, “May the fire and light of these candles illuminate the fire and light within me.”
5. As you soak, feel a beautiful white, pearlescent light shower you with healing energy. Breathe in this light in four counts. As you exhale, breath out a black smoke in four counts. Continue this until you feel peaceful and clear.
6. As you fully submerge, ask the water to cleanse you and take away any other low vibration, heavy, or negative energies. In this moment, spend some time visually experiencing you: on your best day, achieving a task, or simply enjoying your life.
7. Once complete, give thanks, rejoice! Step out of the tub backwards to leave all energy behind and come out anew. Ask the water to take the unwanted energies back to the earth to be transmuted to light.
8. Do not dry off: sit and record any feelings, thoughts or visions for your happiness. Extinguish your candles with a candle snuffer, but do not blow them out. They now hold your energy and intention. You may relight them again for peace and purity.
9. You may offer the flowers, fruit, and rosemary to the river as a gift to the divine for your healing and clearing.

Story and Styling by Quelcy Kogel
Photography by Matt Dayak

Subscribe to TABLE Magazine’s print edition.