Paths to Understanding Invites Communities to Join The Potluck Project — Rebuilding Trust Across Difference

Paths to Understanding, a nonprofit organization led by the Rev. Terry Kyllo, has built its Potluck Project around a clear theory of growth: trust between groups is rebuilt not through debate but through relationship, and people change at the pace of relationship and learning. The project responds to a moment of significant strain in American civic life, pointing to survey data showing widespread anxiety about national divisiveness alongside growing tolerance for political violence across the ideological spectrum. Rather than relying on individuals to bridge divides on their own, the project works through trusted organizations, including congregations, cultural communities, service clubs, and civic groups, so that participants enter gatherings knowing other communities have also chosen to show up. The free Potluck Project toolkit, already downloaded by more than 250 organizations, gives mid-level community leaders everything needed to host a shared meal built around simple guided questions that invite neighbors to recognize one another as people guided by shared moral commitments. Participants describe the gatherings as restoring hope, reducing isolation, and creating a felt sense of safety in connecting across cultural, religious, and identity lines. For NCDD's network, the project offers a distinct, group-to-group model of bridge building that complements more individual-focused dialogue and deliberation practices. Paths to Understanding is also inviting organizations to join as co-sponsors, network the project into new regions, or host a National Tour event.

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Paths to Understanding has spent years developing an approach to bridge building grounded in a specific insight: distrust between groups is rarely really about differing values, but about groups no longer trusting each other to live by the values they actually share. The organization's Potluck Project translates that insight into a practical, replicable tool, inviting individuals, faith communities, and local groups to host shared meals that bring together neighbors of different backgrounds. The initiative responds to a moment of real strain in American civic life, citing survey data showing widespread public anxiety about national division alongside rising acceptance of political violence, and offers a low-barrier way for communities to counter isolation and rebuild the shared trust that underlies healthy public life.

What distinguishes the Potluck Project from many bridge-building efforts is its emphasis on groups rather than individuals. Paths to Understanding's approach works through trusted organizations and leaders, so that participants know other communities have also chosen to participate before they ever arrive, lowering fear and reducing the risk of backlash within their own group. Gatherings begin heart-to-heart, with stories, hopes, and fears rather than debate or comparison, often centered on a single guiding question inviting participants to name a value from their own tradition that shapes how they live. This reflects a principle familiar to NCDD's network: that trust across difference is built through direct relationship, not argument, and that groups can remain rooted in their own identities and convictions while still learning to act together. The free toolkit, downloaded by more than 250 organizations and individuals to date, gives any trusted mid-level leader, not only senior organizational heads, the structure needed to plan and host a successful gathering, including sample invitations, a suggested agenda, and practical planning guidance.
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Paths to Understanding is inviting individuals and organizations to get involved in several ways, whether by downloading the toolkit and hosting a potluck directly, bringing the initiative's National Tour to their region, spreading the idea as a networker, or joining as a co-sponsoring organization alongside founding partners such as Seattle University's Center for Environmental and Interfaith Education. The organization is also nearing completion of two additional toolkits focused on service projects and public gatherings, extending the model beyond shared meals. Groups interested in supporting or replicating this work can access the full toolkit and sponsorship information at https://pathstounderstanding.org/get-involved/potluck/