Our Food System is Broken

Nutrition: According to Feeding America, 1 in 6 Americans face hunger and the need is growing.  Other diet-related health issues also affect Americans, while disproportionately threatening people of color.  For example, 7% of white American adults have diabetes, compared to nearly 19% of African-American adults.  

Economic Justice: Working conditions within various parts of the food sector among the worse in our economic system.  For example, 70% of farmers workers earn under $20,000 per year and 90% of farmer workers earn under $30,000 per year. 

Environment sustainability: Many elements of our food system have an ecological impact.  For example, up to ⅓ of climate change is estimated to be caused by the combined impact of the food production cycle. 

From the Streets to the Tables

Ariel Pliskin was inspired to create Unity Tables after participating in a street retreat. Eating in soup kitchens while living on the streets for days at a time, we found that service providers would often treat us with plenty of love, but not dignity.  There was a strong sense of separation between those serving and those being served.  Poverty and hunger is reinforced by a lack of relationships between people of different backgrounds.  The genuine human relations at community cafes become a building block for the systemic change necessary to reduce hunger and poverty.


Initiated by companies like Panera and individuals like Jon Bon Jovi, over 50 new pay-what-you-can community cafés have popped up over the last 10 years.  While soup kitchens often involve a sense of separation between those serving and the people served, Community Cafés build diverse community. Low-income guests dine and work side-by-side with paying customers.  

Unity Tables: In 2010, actor Jeff Bridges partnered with Bernie Glassman’s Zen Peacemakers to infuse greater dignity into hunger relief.  Through works like the Greyston Foundation and bearing witness retreats at Auschwitz and on the streets, the Zen Peacemakers are recognized as pioneers in socially engaged Buddhism and social enterprise.  With their help, Ari Pliskin established the first member of this network, the Stone Soup Café in Greenfield, MA in 2012.  After that, Ariel lead the Unity Tables Incubator to support leaders in establishing new cafés around the United States.