May 21, 2025
By: Jillian Racoosin Kornmeier, F4SC Executive Director
I was lucky to grow up in a household with an incredible cook and baker (hi mom!). Core memories in the kitchen include my mom’s freshly baked challah, a dish called “grandma’s chicken,” and magic oven brownies. We would tease her through the years that we would turn out to be terrible cooks because she liked to be in charge of her kitchen, meaning we never got much practice. A few years ago, she took this to heart and began making cookbooks for the family filled with recipes of our favorites. We now have 4 volumes of her self-published series, and they have come in handy many times.
That foundation – of food as love, care, and connection – shaped me early. My parents have been a part of a dinner club for as long as I can remember. They would switch off between households, choose a theme, and host a potluck with 20 or so friends. They’d come home and relay the night to my sisters and me (we weren’t the best at going to bed when we were supposed to), and we’d laugh about the friend who brought the same dish no matter what the theme was or discuss which dessert was the best. I must have been itching to have this experience for myself, because in high school, I started hosting my own dinner parties with set menus and themes of their own. I would toast and roast my girlfriends around the table, building friendships that I still hold dear today.
That sense of community through food has followed me into adulthood. In 2022, my partner and I picked up our things and moved to Asheville, NC. We were in search of slower living, mountains, and a small town feeling – a 180º from our lives in DC. We settled into our new apartment and quickly fell in love with all that Asheville had to offer. Saturday mornings on the back porch of Liberty Café became a weekly ritual. A blueberry sourdough skillet pancake, eggs in some fashion, matcha, and cortado on the table meant for a great weekend. If we ran into friends who were also enjoying brunch, we would pull chairs to a bigger table and enjoy a meal together. We laughed, we caught up from the busy week, we played NYT Connections, and we tried to keep our food from the chickens roaming around.
Food also became a gateway to service and deeper purpose. At a recent convening centered around service, we were asked to go around the table and share a memorable volunteer experience. I immediately thought of the days I’d volunteer at Dog Tag Bakery in Georgetown, DC. The Bakery serves to empower veterans, military spouses, and caregivers to find renewed purpose and community after serving our nation through an entrepreneurial fellowship program. Over the winter holidays, I would sign up to package sweet treats and gift boxes that they sold to support their programs. Yes, I also bought some treats to bring home – the joys of volunteering at a bakery! The following year I brought my mom, sister, and a coworker to join the fun. Now that I’m back in the DMV, I’m looking forward to returning.
My relationship with food is also embedded in small weekly routines. On most Sunday mornings, I head to the community farmers market a few blocks from my apartment. It’s a great way to honor foods in season, support farmers and small food businesses, and run into neighborhood friends. Dogs, strollers, grocery carts, and musicians make for a funny maze experience. In addition to connection with neighbors and market-goers, the market reminds me of our connection to local lands that provide us sustenance. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, “In some Native languages the term for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us.’”
These experiences have reinforced my belief that food connects us. Whether we’re eating with good company, cooking a family member’s recipe, or serving food to those in need, food has endless potential to build bonds. Research illustrates that meals are not merely about sustenance, but also serve as bridges for building relationships. A study from the University of Oxford found that individuals who share meals with others more regularly report feeling happier and more satisfied with their lives – increasing social bonds and facilitating deeper feelings of belonging within their community.
Yet, despite how naturally food can unite us, recent trends suggest growing disconnection around the table. “In 2023, roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day—an increase of 53% since 2003. [And] the extent to which 25- to 34-year-olds report eating all of their meals alone on the previous day has increased by more than 180% in two decades”. I fear similar cultural drivers leading to disconnection are driving this trend as well – overwork (the disappearing lunch break), hyper-individualism, mobility, technology, and more. Many are working to reverse these trends, demonstrating how we can leverage food to be a wonderful tool to promote togetherness.
The late chef Anthony Bourdain sums it up perfectly: “Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me. The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.”
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At the Foundation for Social Connection, we have continued to release the Systems Of Cross-sector Integration and Action across the Lifespan (SOCIAL) Framework reports across the various sectors of society, capturing the roles they each have to play in building a more connected country. I am thrilled to announce the launch of our next report in the series, focused on food, nutrition, and social connection. I hope you will read on to explore the intersection of food and connection, including evidence-informed approaches to breaking bread.