Group Plate seeks to carry individuals collectively over shared potluck suppers of basic casseroles.

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

conceal caption

toggle caption

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

Again in 2023, Karl Schatz and Margaret Hathaway, a husband and spouse staff, had not too long ago revealed two volumes of the Maine Group Cookbook once they heard that the U.S. surgeon common, Vivek Murthy, had declared an epidemic of loneliness. Murthy wrote, “It’s related to a higher danger of heart problems, dementia, stroke, melancholy, anxiousness, and untimely demise.” Loneliness is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or by no means exercising, he elaborated. Hathaway and Schatz’s books have been stuffed with recipes and tales from all around the state of Maine and folks stored telling them that they beloved the books as a lot for the recipes as for the tales, Schatz instructed me.

This made Schatz and Hathaway marvel if, maybe, they could be uniquely positioned to supply an antidote to loneliness. Collectively they set about to discovered Group Plate. The aim of the group is to create potluck suppers in cities all around the state of Maine the place individuals come collectively who won’t know one another that effectively, even when they reside across the nook from one another. Every individual brings a dish to share and some resolve they are going to inform tales.

So it was, on a latest drizzly March day, that Hathaway and Schatz, together with their daughter, Charlotte, have 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. Individuals filter in, and numerous casseroles arrive — it is March in Maine, in spite of everything — even an previous basic, 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. Properly, I turned the oven on.”

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

He tells me that, to be sincere, he and Hathaway did not know at first what precisely they have been offering. After which a girl at considered one of their very first suppers truly 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 he or she got here and sat down on the desk throughout from me. I requested her what introduced her to the supper and he or she stated, ‘I got here as a result of I am lonely.’ It was the primary time I might ever heard somebody say that out loud.”

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

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

conceal caption

toggle caption

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

Only a few 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 answer based on the report? Individuals 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 have been going to be scorching button points that instantly are. Meals is mostly one thing individuals can speak about 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 is a casserole.) She says, “It is received cubed-up rooster. It is received 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.

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

conceal caption

toggle caption

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 and so they stated, get your coats, and get out, your own home is melting.”

Although 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.

Quickly, 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 have been right here first so I do know meaning you are hungry.”

When everyone seems to be lastly seated and consuming, Schatz stands up once more, and takes the microphone. His mission is to get individuals connecting and speaking. He suggests, “If you’d like, in case you’re sitting with an individual that you’ve got dinner with each night time of the week, and also you resolve tonight you wish to have dinner with another person, you’ve my permission to take a seat with another person. We encourage you to try 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 frightened they have to stand up to inform a narrative he says, “So far as the story sharing goes, individuals typically ask, ‘Do I’ve to share a narrative?’ And the reply is ‘no.’ You do not have to share a narrative. We additionally want listeners. Storytelling is a two-way road, you possibly can’t have story-telling with out story listening.”

Brendan Schauffler tells the group about his father.

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

conceal caption

toggle caption

Marsden Shetterly/for NPR

The room will get quiet, solely the clinking of silverware and chewing will be heard. Brendan Schauffler stands up and walks to the entrance of the room. He rubs his arms 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 an adolescent. Trying 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 on this place without end. I grew to become 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 persons 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 on your story. I, too, misplaced somebody very near me. I misplaced my 13-year-old son to suicide. And it’s extremely onerous for me, however I actually admire your braveness.”

The 2 males maintain one another. Schauffler says into the person’s ear, “I’m so sorry on 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. Group Plate is providing Maine an antidote to loneliness and disconnection, one supper at a time.

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