Breaking Bread

What Breaking Bread does

Breaking Bread is a non-profit community organization founded in August 2023 by Joseph Pool at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. It builds connections among students, faculty, administrators, and Greater Orlando residents through shared meals and culturally themed events, including monthly themed eating gatherings, the November 2023 Festival of Lights (an interfaith event uniting Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu participants around the theme of light), Eat and Greets, Lunch & Learns, and co-hosted programming with the Student Interfaith Council, Rollins Improv Players, EMBARK, the Pinehurst Organization, and Rollins Dining Services. Each gathering opens with the symbolic breaking of bread tied to the event's theme. The organization grew from approximately 100 members in its first week to over 200 members by late 2023.

The organization operates two offerings: in-person community-building events on and around the Rollins campus, and the Breaking Bread Box program — an early-stage replication offering that supplies resources and guidance to other campuses and communities seeking to start their own chapters. There is no proprietary technology platform; the product surface is fundamentally physical and event-based. The Breaking Bread Box intake currently runs through a contact form rather than a self-serve product.

Breaking Bread is structured as a volunteer-led non-profit with no disclosed revenue and no fee-based pricing. Its 12 listed employees reflect student director-level volunteer positions (Director of Operations, Director of Events, Director of Marketing, Director of Philanthropy). Funding flows through donations via the GiveCampus platform and, prospectively, grants and sponsorships managed by the Director of Philanthropy. The primary go-to-market channels are the Rollins GetInvolved platform, campus involvement fairs, and Instagram (@breakingbreadrollins, @trybreakingbread), with a LinkedIn presence for organizational visibility. No formal corporate ownership, venture backing, or incorporation status has been disclosed.

Name

Breaking Bread

Legal name

Breaking Bread

Website

https://trybreakingbread.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Breaking Bread is a Rollins College-based non-profit founded in 2023 that builds community through shared meals and cultural events, serving students, faculty, and Greater Orlando residents while expanding its model to other campuses via the Breaking Bread Box program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Building Services

NAICS

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Life Skills & SEL Camps (Confidence, Executive Function, Social Skills) (EDAMALAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

School Feeding & Social Protection Partnerships (Conditional Cash Transfers, etc.) (EDADALAL)

Keywords

• Community building
• Shared meals
• Interfaith dialogue
• Campus engagement
• Cultural exchange events

Headquarters

HQ city

Winter Park

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Fundraising: Breaking Bread accepts donations through GiveCampus platform and has a Director of Philanthropy role focused on fundraising efforts, grants, and donations to sustain organizational growth.
2. Volunteer and Community Support: The organization operates through volunteer leadership positions and community support without explicit revenue-generating activities.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Breaking Bread is a non-profit community organization that builds connections among college students, faculty, and the broader community through in-person shared-meal events and cultural celebrations such as the Festival of Lights, Monthly Eating gatherings, Eat and Greets, and Lunch & Learns. It also offers the Breaking Bread Box program, which provides resources and guidance to help other campuses and communities launch their own chapters.

Product overview

Breaking Bread is a community organization that operates through two main offerings: in-person events centered around shared meals and cultural experiences, and the Breaking Bread Box program which provides resources and guidance for establishing new chapters on campuses and in communities. The organization facilitates connections through themed dining events, cultural celebrations like the Festival of Lights, and monthly eating gatherings that bring together diverse groups.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Breaking Bread Events Community-building events centered around shared meals and cultural celebrations, including the Festival of Lights, Monthly Eating gatherings, Eat and Greets, and Lunch & Learns, serving Rollins College students, faculty, and the Greater Orlando community.
• Breaking Bread Box A chapter expansion program that enables campuses and communities to launch their own Breaking Bread chapter, providing guidance and resources for starting local community meal initiatives.

Quantifiable outcome

• Broke Rollins records with nearly 100 members in first week of advertising
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Student Interfaith CouncilminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative partner for interfaith events and dialogues, including co-hosting the Festival of Lights which brought together Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu students.
• Rollins Improv PlayersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-hosted Late Night Bites event combining food with improvisational comedy performances for campus entertainment.
• EMBARKminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered for Dinner Discourse events combining dining experiences with engaging conversations.
• Center for Leadership and Community EngagementminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInstitutional partner at Rollins College supporting community engagement initiatives and leadership programs.
• Dining Services (Rollins College)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates with campus dining services for food provisioning at events and themed dining experiences.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Interfaith America (IFYC): The nation's flagship interfaith-cooperation organization operating across thousands of U.S. college campuses; broader in scope and institutional than Breaking Bread, but pursuing the same interfaith-building goal through college programs. Direct mission overlap.
• More in Common: A nonpartisan organization working to reduce polarization and build bridges across divides in the U.S. and U.K. Same 'bridge across difference' value proposition as Breaking Bread, just operating at policy/cultural scale rather than one campus.

Direct peers

• OneTable: OneTable hosts community dinners to build relationships and combat social isolation among young adults—essentially the same dinner-as-bridge social model Breaking Bread uses, though traditionally with a Jewish/Friday-night framing. Direct functional peer in the dinner-meets-community-building category.
• The Dinner Party: Hosts dinner gatherings for people in their 20s and 30s who have experienced the loss of a parent or sibling, using food and conversation as the connective ritual. Same meal-plus-meaningful-conversation model and similar college-age demographic; comparable in structure and emotionally-driven value proposition.
• The People's Supper: Organizes hosted dinners across political, racial, and religious divides to build connection across difference—a near-direct comparator to Breaking Bread's interfaith, cross-cultural mission, leveraging the same symbolic power of breaking bread together.

Emerging players

• Moishe House: Funds and trains young adult Jewish leaders to host peer-led community gatherings in their homes. Analogous community-building-via-shared-meals model with a strong peer-organization/expansion playbook, though limited to a specific faith community.
• Repair the World: A Jewish-service organization engaging young adults through community-service programs and shared-meal programming on and off campus. Comparable in demographic and community-meal methodology, though more service-action focused than Breaking Bread's interfaith dialogue.

Regional players

• HIllel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life: Operates across U.S. college campuses, frequently with Shabbat dinners and interfaith programs. While faith-specific, Hillel's consistent use of shared meals for Jewish life and engagement overlaps directly with Breaking Bread's meal-as-community-bond approach and may compete for the same campus venues and student audiences.
• Better Together: Hosts in-person community dinners to combat loneliness and build relationships, particularly in Florida and the Southeast. Geographic and functional overlap with Breaking Bread, though typically serving adults outside a college context.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/trybreakingbread
• Instagraminstagram.com/trybreakingbread

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Breaking Bread