The program is called Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers.
"So the idea is that people who don't talk with each other might not want to come together to talk. Invite them to dinner, breaking bread together, it breaks down the barriers," said Dr. Harris Sokoloff, executive director of Catalyst Community Conversations.
He explains the dinners are set up in public parks.
They bring in tables, chairs, tents if necessary, with ethnic food as the centerpiece that reflects the heritage of those attending.
"You know, people can talk about food. Politics, no. Gentrification, no. But they can talk about food and it gets them together and they see each other as people, they see the commonality," he explained.
"So this is a project, we're starting our second round of it. The first round was two years ago, and some people from the first round are still getting together on a regular basis," Sokoloff said.
Those partnerships, he adds, have extended into friendships as well as business.
"In Southwest Philadelphia, the African community and the African-American community, two of the leaders didn't even know each other. They now share an office in the Southwest CDC."