An app(etite) for shared meals

An App(etite) for Shared Meals

Undergrad-created app and club Eat Together connects UW students through mutual interests and the glory of food.

There鈥檚 an app for everything these days 鈥� and for 乱伦社区 students looking to share a meal, that鈥檚 a good thing. 听

is a Registered Student Organization that focuses on the glory of food. The club began as an app to help UW students make friends by matching them based on their mutual interests and allowing them to schedule a meal together.听

鈥淲e make cuisine the centerpiece of creating new friendships and meaningful connections within our community,鈥� affirms club director and informatics student Navneeth Dhamotharan, 鈥�27.听听听

Created in winter of 2022, the app-focused startup arose from what co-founders Rachel Hu, 鈥�25, and Eric Xiao, 鈥�25, who met on LinkedIn, saw as a lack of connection due to the oft-discussed 鈥淪eattle Freeze,鈥� a belief that it鈥檚 difficult to make new friends in the city. 听

As foodies, the two computer science students wanted a way to genuinely connect with other UW students and eventually recognized that 鈥渇ood is a great universal medium to bond with others,鈥� Xiao says. Thus, the app was born. The students transitioned the app into a club and community-based project in the spring of 2023.听

鈥淲e make cuisine the centerpiece of creating new friendships and meaningful connections within our community.鈥�

Navneeth DhamotharanUW student and Eat Together club director

Past club events include a Chinese New Year meetup, a Cinco de Mayo taco night and a Thanksgiving potluck. 听

Juan Gonzalez, 鈥�24, remembers a final event from 2023 at Mama’s Viet Kitchen: 鈥淚鈥檓 so happy that I spent time meeting people through Eat Together.鈥�

Eat Together has also left table signs at Housing & Food Services dining halls in the past, incentivizing students to 鈥渆at together鈥� at those tables.听

Groups of students sit on blankets on the grass outdoors in the Quad on the UW Seattle campus. There are lighted string lights on the ground.

UW students in the Eat Together RSO gather for a fun Night Bites Picnic in the Quad on the UW Seattle campus.

A group of students pose with carved pumpkins

Eat Together members showcase their creative talents and carve pumpkins together during a Halloween RSO meetup.

Another popular feature of Eat Together is its Cohort Program, where students build and design new features for the app 鈥� many of which have gone live. The program runs from January to June. 听

鈥淣early 60 students have developed additions like the photo gallery and a would-you-rather game. Current projects include a restaurant picker,鈥� Dhamotharan says. 听

Alex Hsu, 鈥�28, and Matt Lau, 鈥�28, both enjoyed building their technical skills through the Cohort Program. Lau appreciated 鈥渢he chance to grow alongside other driven students鈥� and develop 鈥減rofessional tech practices,鈥� while Hsu credits Eat Together with getting him into his dream design major.听

Recruitment for the Cohort Program begins in the fall quarter and continues through winter break.听

A group of students in front of a screen showing their app design.

Eat Together members present their Notifications and Chat redesign to the 2025 Cohort Program. The team has also presented a UX/UI design tutorial, a competitive analysis and insight from user research.

A large group poses together and smile inside a building at night while holding red envelopes for Chinese New Year.

Food events are a cornerstone of this student club, an opportunity to share meals together over fun or cultural themes, such as Chinese New Year (above) or Cinco de Mayo.

For co-founder Xiao, the club has many benefits: Students bond over food, but they also work on an app that has local impact. He credits the club with allowing him to hone his cooking and hosting skills, like when he planned a Lunar New Year dumpling-making event. The club also offers mentorship opportunities for students.听

Sophia Lin, 鈥�26, likes that Eat Together was a great way to meet people during her freshman year: 鈥淚 enjoyed getting to know people and learning about all their interests and hobbies,鈥� she says. 听

Eat Together is active year-round. Students looking to join can , peruse the for more information, or visit the club鈥檚 . See how the app works below.