BreakBread Origin Story
BreakBread was born out of a time – a time when the town center was replaced by a global internet, if you’re old enough to remember the town center, that is.
When the global internet came, it felt like a playground of possibility, a fresh changing of the guard, where the impenetrable establishment would surely lose power, where the limitation of our local thinking was challenged, and anyone could connect to everyone, learn anything, become wealthy, stumble into fame. We thought, what could be better? What will happen next?
But soon we were glued to these things called devices.
We forgot how to talk without our fingers, our ideas became extreme, we became angrier and self-righteous, we became lonely, isolated, we went from citizens of the world to consumers of the world. We were not happy.
As this fiery disconnect bloomed, two friends fell in love, Martha and John. Caught breathless uptown, isolated in our over-connected world, we started to slow down. We wanted a sweeter sound, one not buzzing with BuzzFeed. How bout dinner?
We gathered friends like kindling and started the proverbial fire by hosting monthly dinner parties. No bigs. Except it was.
It was personal.
We said we want you, on this night, at this time.
It was intentional.
We expressed our intention, “to deepen our relationships with all of you and to weave the threads of community with laughter, inquiry, and good food.”
It had rules.
In response to flake culture, we asked friends to commit with vigor.
It was designed to go deep.
We asked them to think about the question we posed for the evening.
It was magical.
Among the dozens of opulent metropolitan options, last-minute party calls, bootie calls, or inevitable headache, our friends said…
“Hell yes! I’ll be there.”
Perhaps our dinners would have been “no bigs” if we had a “let it be loose, come if you can maybe, let’s gossip while jaggedly checking our phones, I’m sorry, what do you do?”
But that’s not how it went.
We reacquainted ourselves with the power of intention, the power of presence, the power of inquiry, and the power of committing with a “hell yes!”
And because of this, we heard knee-slapping stories, whizzes of wisdom falling onto plates filled with John’s famous chili-in-a-pumpkin and Martha’s famous chocolate cake. We saw shifts in sight, in friendship, in love with laughing and we heard home like a song in our hearts.
And then Covid…
No more eye-hugging, hand-squeezing delight with friends. Our hearts shriveled in the face of isolated lockdown loneliness.
We tried a virtual dinner – but it was erratic and distracted and people came and went. It felt terrible to be in the presence of no presence, no commitment, and no real connection. These were our people, why was it so bad?
We decided to lead a little – We asked for commitment. We asked friends to bring friends. We led with presencing, intention, and careful care. We crafted a prompt, modeled mindful conversation, and formally followed-up.
We remembered it wasn’t just another party that we needed. We needed to gather ceremoniously, with hearts open, and relearn the power of mindful conversation over the simple everyday act of breaking bread.
With this we hatched BreadBread World, dining every Friday night.
Like so many, and maybe like you, we are lifting out of the dark drowning techno-river of our time and finding our engaged community in thoughtful dialogue, reweaving the threads of our humanity by reaching across the table – nourished not just by food but by the power of human connection.
We invite you to join! We are here to guide you as friends toward a new horizon where our human spirit is sustained.
Martha Williams and John Scilipote are creators, thinkers, and community connectors passionate about the power of conversation to create communities of care, connection, trust, and belonging. They founded