The author, having directed, taught and evaluated five study-abroad programmes in three different countries, created her own programme based on the pros and cons she had observed. In December 2013, she completed a pilot run of a binational learning community focused on food, culture and social justice in Ecuador and Oregon, and here she shares that experience in order to encourage other higher education teachers to invent similar programmes. It is not an easy model to pull off, especially in a large state institution, but it achieved the kind of coherence that she had found lacking in other study-abroad programmes. The author states that it was a very satisfying teaching/learning experience. She outlines some issues concerning study-abroad programmes and then describes the programme and its implementation in 2013. The challenges are many, but despite the difficulty of mounting such a programme and the deficiencies that revealed themselves during the course of it, this pedagogical model offered a fascinating learning experience for everyone involved, created long-lasting binational relationships and provided experiences to think about for years to come.