Listen. Connect. Understand. Act Together.
Spearheaded by Governor David Beasley in partnership with ACT NOW.
Breaking Bread Together brings people across communities, experiences, beliefs, and perspectives to a shared table; creating space to listen more deeply, understand what matters, and discover what may be possible when we work together.
ABOUT BREAKING BREAD TOGETHER
Local conversations.
Shared learning.
Civic intelligence that can move communities forward.
Breaking Bread Together is a national listening and community dialogue initiative spearheaded by former South Carolina Governor and former UN World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley, in partnership with ACT NOW.
Each gathering combines a shared meal with facilitated conversation and reflection. People bring their lived experience, listen to perspectives they may not ordinarily hear, and work together to understand the issue more fully.
Our purpose is to create conditions for communities to hear one another and themselves more clearly, and identify meaningful ways to work together.
UPCOMING GATHERINGS / CALENDAR
Breaking Bread Across the Country
Participated in a gathering? Select your community below to revisit the conversation and explore what emerged.
Breaking Bread Together
Explore the Conversations
Each community enters Breaking Bread Together through a different question.
Select a gathering to learn more about the local context, the focus of the conversation, and what the community explored together.
For completed gatherings, a public overview will highlight the larger themes and questions that emerged. Participants may also access the more detailed reflection materials associated with their gathering.
SEPTEMBER 16, 2026
Cleveland, Ohio
Inclusive Economic Development
OCTOBER 1, 2026
Harlem, New York
Role of Faith Community in Immigration
OCTOBER 6 & 7, 2026
Indianapolis, Indiana
Hunger & Food Deserts
OCTOBER 16, 2026
Digital Exploitation, Pornography,
& Sex Trafficking
Salt Lake City, Utah
OCTOBER 29, 2026
Nashville, Tennesee
Multi-culturalism
OCTOBER 21-23, 2026
Chicago, Illinois
Youth Violence Prevention
OCTOBER 26, 2026
Kansas City, Kansas
Polarization
NOVEMBER 9-11, 2026
Detroit, Michigan
Hate-fueled/political violence
MEET DAVID BEASLEY
The invitation behind Breaking Bread Together
Governor David Beasley has spent much of his career working across lines of political, cultural, religious, and national difference.
He served as Governor of South Carolina and later as Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, where he led the world’s largest humanitarian organization through some of the most complex crises in the world. In 2020, he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on the organization’s behalf. He is also a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
Again and again, his work has reinforced a simple idea: meaningful progress often begins when people are willing to sit together, listen beyond assumptions, and recognize one another’s humanity.
Breaking Bread Together brings that invitation home to communities across America.
Governor Beasley joins gatherings as a convener and listener, offering opening and closing reflections while local communities remain at the center of the conversation.
ACT NOW sees an America where communities eliminate the root causes of poverty, racism and the forces that bolster social inequities that undermine us and threaten our safety.
ACT NOW is a bipartisan national initiative working with communities across the country to strengthen local leadership, opportunity, safety, and belonging. Its human-centered approach brings residents, civic and faith leaders, businesses, and local organizations together to listen, learn, and act.
Through Listening Sessions, Breaking Bread events, and organized local action, ACT NOW provides the experience and infrastructure to help communities move from conversation to meaningful action.
Bringing Breaking Bread Together to Your Community?
Hosting a meaningful community conversation requires more than putting people in a room.
The Event Planning Resource Center gives local hosts practical tools for preparing the people, partnerships, space, hospitality, communication, and technology that support a strong Breaking Bread Together experience.
Host Tools
Access to the Event Planning Resource Center is free for registered Breaking Bread Together hosts.
Registered hosts receive complimentary access to resources including:
Breaking Bread Together Host Toolkit
Event planning worksheets and readiness tools
Invitation and communication templates
Editable event flyers and promotional materials
Table Host / Facilitator preparation resources
Participant and consent materials
Room, technology, meal, and accessibility planning tools
Post-gathering and Carry Forward resources
Start a Conversation
Could Breaking Bread Together Serve Your Community?
Every community is carrying something worth understanding more deeply.
You may be navigating an important local decision, a persistent tension, an emerging opportunity, or simply recognizing that people who share a community are not hearing enough from one another.
If you are interested in bringing Breaking Bread Together to your community, tell us a little about what is happening where you live and what you hope a gathering might make possible.
There is no need to have the experience fully designed. Start with the question, issue, opportunity, or relationship that has you thinking people should come to the table.