Community suppers fight loneliness in Maine : NPR

Back in 2023, Karl Schatz and Margaret Hathaway, a husband and spouse group, had not too long ago revealed two volumes of the Maine Community Cookbook after they heard that the U.S. surgeon common, Vivek Murthy, had declared an epidemic of loneliness. Murthy wrote, “It is related to a higher threat of heart problems, dementia, stroke, melancholy, nervousness, and untimely dying.” Loneliness is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or by no means exercising, he elaborated. Hathaway and Schatz’s books had been filled with recipes and tales from everywhere in the state of Maine and other people saved telling them that they cherished the books as a lot for the recipes as for the tales, Schatz advised me.

This made Schatz and Hathaway marvel if, maybe, they is perhaps uniquely positioned to supply an antidote to loneliness. Together they set about to discovered Community Plate. The objective of the group is to create potluck suppers in cities everywhere in the state of Maine the place individuals come collectively who won’t know one another that properly, even when they reside across the nook from one another. Each individual brings a dish to share and some determine they are going to inform tales.

So it was, on a latest drizzly March day, that Hathaway and Schatz, together with their daughter, Charlotte, had been checking individuals in for a Sunday story sharing supper in Norway, Maine.

All three greeted individuals on the door, talking over one another as the primary company arrived. People filter in, and loads of casseroles arrive — it is March in Maine, in any case — even an outdated traditional, inexperienced bean. Reed Mclean tells me that it is “straight from the can.” I ask, “Did you assist make it?” And he solutions, “I didn’t. Well, I turned the oven on.”

The environment in the room is convivial and lightweight. Schatz seems to be round and says, “You know, I feel that individuals see this as form of a present to the neighborhood, this chance for individuals to come back collectively.”

He tells me that, to be trustworthy, he and Hathaway did not know at first what precisely they had been offering. And then a girl at considered one of their very first suppers really outlined it for them: “She had simply moved to Maine, she was a grandmother, she had moved right here to be nearer to her grandkids, and she or he got here and sat down on the desk throughout from me. I requested her what introduced her to the supper and she or he mentioned, ‘I got here as a result of I’m lonely.’ It was the primary time I’d ever heard somebody say that out loud.”

June Howard’s casserole contribution featured cubed hen, apples, cheese, and cranberries.

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

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Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

Just a couple of weeks in the past, the 2025 World Happiness Report issued a warning that acknowledged: “Social connections are critically essential for human well being, happiness, and prosperity.” The resolution in response to the report? People want to take a seat down and eat collectively. Hathaway agrees we want this now greater than ever. “And simply as our tradition turns into extra divisive, there are such a lot of points you by no means thought had been going to be sizzling button points that out of the blue are. Food is mostly one thing individuals can discuss with out it turning into contentious.”

As I mill round speaking to company, a girl named June Howard is keen to inform me what she has dropped at share tonight. (Spoiler: It’s a casserole.) She says, “It’s obtained cubed-up hen. It’s obtained carrots, celery, onions, cheese, apples, cranberries …”

Seated subsequent to her, Ruby Bryant, tells me she is glad to be right here tonight as a result of she wanted to get out. Two weeks in the past there was a horrible hearth on the home subsequent door to hers.

Attendees contribute to the meals in no matter method they will, with selfmade dishes or choices straight from the shop.

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Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

“We heard pounding on the door so we went downstairs in our pajamas and it was the policemen, by then they knocked the door down they usually mentioned, get your coats, and get out, your own home is melting.”

Though Bryant says she is gluten free and has introduced her personal dinner, she chats amiably with different company as everybody waits for the buffet to get beneath method.

Soon, Schatz takes the mic and encourages individuals to enter the buffet line, desk by desk. “We’re gonna begin with this desk over right here, ‘trigger you guys had been right here first so I do know meaning you are hungry.”

When everyone seems to be lastly seated and to eat, Schatz stands up once more, and takes the microphone. His mission is to get individuals connecting and speaking. He suggests, “If you need, should you’re sitting with an individual that you’ve dinner with each night time of the week, and also you determine tonight you need to have dinner with another person, you might have my permission to take a seat with another person. We encourage you to do this, to possibly make a brand new connection, as a result of that’s the reason we we’re right here tonight.”

And, in case anybody is anxious they have to rise up to inform a narrative he says, “As far because the story sharing goes, individuals usually ask, ‘Do I’ve to share a narrative?’ And the reply is ‘no.’ You do not must share a narrative. We additionally want listeners. Storytelling is a two-way road, you’ll be able to’t have story-telling with out story listening.”

Brendan Schauffler tells the group about his father.

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Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

The room will get quiet, solely the clinking of silverware and chewing may be heard. Brendan Schauffler stands up and walks to the entrance of the room. He rubs his fingers collectively after which takes the mic. He begins to inform a narrative about his father’s loneliness, which led to his father’s eventual suicide when Schauffler was a young person. Looking across the room, forks are down, faces nonetheless, everybody’s listening.

Brendan confesses, “I felt like my face forgot the form of a smile and that I’d be caught in this place endlessly. I turned decided to by no means once more lose the chance to inform somebody I cared about how a lot they imply to me.

After two extra storytellers, the night begins to wind down and individuals are pulling on coats and gathering their ladles and crock pots. Then, a person who requested that NPR not identify him to guard his household from additional ache, faucets Schauffler on the shoulder.

“I needed to thanks to your story. I, too, misplaced somebody very near me. I misplaced my 13-year-old son to suicide. And it’s totally laborious for me, however I actually admire your braveness.”

The two males maintain one another. Schauffler says into the person’s ear, “I’m so sorry to your loss.” They begin to half, after which they lean in once more, and maintain on as soon as extra.

Moments of connection like this are unplanned and profound. The recipe is so easy: A Sunday night time, a potluck, some neighbors, and some tales. Community Plate is providing Maine an antidote to loneliness and disconnection, one supper at a time.

If you or somebody you recognize is in disaster, please name, textual content or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.