\u201cIt\u2019s not just food; it\u2019s life,\u201d says Saradar, associate director of economic development at Nationalities Services Center. \u201cWhen you sit at a table, you say \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019, not \u2018me\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019. All those hierarchies dissolve while eating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saradar\u2019s experience was part of Reading Terminal\u2019s Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers<\/a> series, which hosted several dinners for immigrants and native-born Americans. Conceived by then-executive director Anuj Gupta, the series consisted of two dinners per group, culminating in one final meal for all 130 participants. Gupta (and others) have since held various iterations of Breaking Bread.<\/p>\n Now, as part of the city\u2019s 250th celebrations \u2014 at another fraught moment for immigration in America \u2014 Gupta, now executive director of The Welcoming Center, is bringing the series back, with The Citizen as a media partner. This time, Gupta\u2019s ambitions are even greater: The Welcoming Center will host in total about 1,200 Philadelphians for a series of three dinners in seven different neighborhoods, aimed at creating community connections and culminating in what Gupta is calling a \u201crecipe for citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFood is one of the last things that it doesn\u2019t matter how much money you make, doesn\u2019t matter what language you speak, doesn\u2019t matter what part of the world you grew up in,\u201d Gupta says. \u201cWe are using food to cut through the things that divide us, and structure it in a way to see if we can bring this increasingly diverse Philadelphia together.\u201d<\/p>\n Food is the vehicle <\/p>\n Gupta first created Breaking Bread in 2016 at Reading Terminal with three inspirations:<\/p>\n A mandate from his board to make sure the market \u201cwas relevant to everyday Philadelphians.\u201d Sociologist Elijah Anderson\u2019s The Cosmopolitan Canopy,<\/a> which devotes a chapter to \u201cthe organic chemistry\u201d that a market like Reading Terminal can provide to its constituents. The knowledge that we had a \u201cfast diversifying Philadelphia, predominantly through immigration.\u201d <\/p>\n The very first dinner was for Korean business owners and the mostly Black West Philly residents around 52nd Street, in the wake of several racially-charged incidents. The cornerstone of the meal, as catered by a couple different restaurants: fried chicken, both Southern and Korean.<\/p>\n In 2019, at the behest of then Parks and Recreation Director Kathryn Ott Lovell,<\/a>\u00a0Gupta helped launch a similar series in city parks to solve a conundrum Ott Lovell had observed: Though neighborhoods were becoming increasingly diverse, friends of the park groups tended to be dominated by folks from just one or two ethnic groups, which then determined the programming of the park. \u201cPlaces that should be the most accessible and democratic \u2014 parks \u2014 were not reflective of the communities they served,\u201d Gupta says. Ott Lovell wondered, \u201cCould we use Breaking Bread to bring more communities into their neighborhood parks and make them part of it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just food; it\u2019s life. When you sit at a table, you say \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019, not \u2018me\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019. All those hierarchies dissolve while eating.\u201d\u00a0\u2014 Nasr Saradar<\/p>\n Gupta organized dinners in Germantown\u2019s Vernon Park; Kensington\u2019s Norris Square; Southwest\u2019s Bartram\u2019s Garden; and South Philly\u2019s FDR Park. The most robust spectrum of Philadelphians participated in those dinners \u2014 until Covid hit, and the last, communal, dinner had to be cancelled. A year later, Gupta did a series virtually, with 90 neighbors from East and West Mt. Airy, who picked up food from a local restaurant, logged in to Zoom, and then broke into small groups for led conversations. It was, Gupta says, surprisingly moving.<\/p>\n \u201cThe things that people were willing to share with complete strangers through screens was striking,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were just longing for some kind of connection, and this gave them a platform, using food as the vehicle.\u201d One woman, a stranger to Gupta, started crying during the discussion, noting that the virtual dinner was the first interaction she\u2019d had with anybody outside of her son and her immediate neighbors since the lockdown began months earlier. \u201cIt was such a pressure valve release for her, and because we\u2019re talking about food, it gave her just this sense of comfort that she could talk about it here.\u201d<\/p>\n Other organizations \u2014 including the Anti-Defamation League and Mayor Kenney\u2019s administration \u2014 used Gupta\u2019s Breaking Bread model over the last few years to bring people together after conflicts. (One such dinner, between Mummers and members of the Mexican and Chinese communities, resulted in Gupta being invited to strut in the New Years parade \u2014 which he finally did,<\/a>\u00a0this year.)<\/p>\n \u201cWe have very few things in common anymore,\u201d Gupta says, noting for instance his \u201cgreat\u201d block in Mt. Airy, where the 12 young kids attend different schools, so don\u2019t really know each other. \u201cNo matter where you\u2019re from, you have a cuisine in your background, and when you start exploring, the similarities are quite striking.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Breaking_Bread_1-HED.jpeg\"\/)
<\/a>Photo courtesy of Breaking Bread. <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Breaking_Bread_Body_Copy_Hi_Res.jpeg\"\/)
<\/a>A Breaking Bread event in November 2025 at Carpenters\u2019 Hall. Courtesy of Breaking Bread. Healing through culinary storytelling <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1764777427_704_nl_bolt600-copy.jpg\"\/)
MORE IMMIGRANT LIVES IN PHILADELPHIA<\/p>\n