We begin with this simple observation: Taking food can present an occasion for offering food.
The sheer visibility of mealtime self-service to other diners (reflexively) furnishes both a context
and an account for these offers of service. Not only does mealtime self-service furnish a public
launching pad for offering service to others, but the placement of that offer – either on the way to
serving oneself or just after having done so – can frame the offer, casting it as a ‘no bother, while
I’m at it’ offer. Furthermore, an Offerer can modify the path of their self-service so as to overtly
promote the offer: The self-service Manual Action Pathway can be fashioned so as to incorporate
visible preparation to serve the Offeree, just before or just after their own self-service. The report
then takes up those offers made just as the actual transfer of food or drink is carried out. These
offers are recurrently coterminous with the transfer, and thereby become fulfilment-ready just as
the transfer reaches its material completion. In sum, in this report, we are able to specify just how
practical embodied conduct can contribute to the formation of communicative action – thus providing a way to ground the concept of social solidarity, when applied to offers and their acceptance/declination, in the visible practices of self-service organization.