Team ‘Longest Table’ was funded $3,100 during the 24 Hour Citizen Project in 2018. As the national trend of civil discourse declines, having authentic cross-racial conversations is becoming increasingly more difficult. Without the ability to have open conversations, we further the divide with “the other side.” We believe there is an opportunity to unite our community through the breaking of bread. By leveraging our community’s unique relationship with food and sharing meals, we can break down walls and lead to impactful cross-racial conversation. When participants honestly exchange perspectives face-to-face, share personal experiences, and clarify viewpoints, our community moves one step closer to overcoming our division. Participants from many facets of the community will gather to share a meal and engage in meaningful dialogue aimed at helping people overcome the hump of having their first cross-racial conversation. The community-wide effort is designed to bolster understanding in challenging times. Our goal is to equip them with the necessary tools and resources to navigate difficult conversations; using food as a commonality and familial bind that creates space for trust and an honest exchange of ideas and experiences. We know this will not create immediate solutions, but through these meals, we invite discovery, the reevaluation of assumptions and the improvement of race relations. We strive to create authentic human connection and engagement through conversation. Through these unique experiences,  we hope to attain our goal to “move people along the continuum from uninformed to informed, from informed to concerned, and from concerned to active.”