Shift the Conversation, Change the World
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You too can host a nourishing conversation journey with family, friends, or coworkers. BreakBread is a flagship process that revolves around the age-old act of breaking bread together bolstered by a simple, meaningful conversation process that helps people appreciate each other and come into deeper attunement with each other — a radical concept in a deeply divided world!
An enchanted evening is coming to Tilda’s Kitchen and Marketplace on Wednesday, July 22, and you’re invited to partake. A delicious menu will be specially seasoned with openness and joy, as an evening of connection and conversation will be hosted by Martha and John Williams, who’ve created a method they call BreakBread to elevate the pleasure of sharing a dinner.
BreakBread is a digital platform, marketplace and hub for curated home-cooked food experiences with a mission to unite and connect people, chefs and food lovers around a central idea, ‘food is best experienced home-cooked and shared’.
The Williamses were inspired to build BreakBread as an antidote to disconnection, believing that sharing meals and deep talks can heal the 21st century loneliness epidemic one evening at a time. They’ve developed a deceptively simple process to deepen and power up the evening’s socializing into something that means you’ll go home with not just your tummy but your heart and mind satiated.
“I think one of the things that people can generally expect from BreakBread is conversations that are engaging and heart opening,” says John. “People tend to connect on a deeper level, and oftentimes that means for a lot of people on a more heart-to-heart level.”
There’s a relaxed, effective structure that they’ve employed with wildly diverse groups, to help evoke something deeper than a standard evening out. It begins with the entire group in a circle, greeting one another, setting an intention for the evening, and getting familiar with some simple guidelines.
“The guidelines aren’t so much hard-and-fast rules as they are a method for fulfilling the intention of the evening,” says Martha. “One of my absolute favorites is ‘Everyone comes to the table brimming with gifts,’ which always turns out to be deeply true in unexpected ways and sets the stage for curiosity. It puts people into a slightly different mindset: what gifts do I bring? What do others bring? Over the course of the meal, the gifts reveal themselves in lovely, unexpected ways. It’s a perspective that encourages a bigger, juicier conversation.”
After the guidelines are laid out, guests break into smaller groups of six or seven for discussion of the evening’s “prompt,” a conversation starter meant to provide grist for the communal mill. The prompt for the evening at Tilda’s is “How does respect or lack of respect show up in your life? Why does it matter?” and it’s impossible to imagine a human who wouldn’t have some interesting thoughts about that.
There will be plenty of chips and salsa to munch as things get rolling, and a classic Tillda’s feast: spring mix salad, seasoned grilled chicken or veggie tamales made fresh at Tilda’s by a local El Salvadoran chef, rice and beans on the side, and tea and cookies for dessert. And best of all, the whole meal will be infused by the intangible gifts of each and every guest.
“People just naturally soften and open up around the dinner table,” says John. “It’s essential human nature, and it works every time.”
To register for the BreakBread evening being held at Tilda’s at 6 pm on Wednesday, July 22, stop in at the restaurant (630 Broadway in Kingston) or visit breakbread.world. Dinner is $25. The experience will be priceless.