Like so many of us, Scott Wiener ' who runs Scotts Pizza Tours in New York City ' wanted to do something after Donald Trumps proposed Muslim ban last month. Once the shock settled, something hit him: the city needed a new kind of food tour, one that celebrates the cuisine of the nations targeted by the ban.Together with Jeff Orlick, a fellow food tour guide, and product designer Steph Mantis, they were able to get Breaking Bread NYC off the ground in a little under a week after the ban was announced. You put activism into your life through the channel youve already got, Mantis told The Huffington Post. For Weiner and Orlick, that meant organizing the tour, and for Mantis it meant creating the logo (among other things).Breaking Bread NYC is a food tour company that provides maps, guided tours and dinner parties with the purpose of highlighting restaurants and bakeries run by people from the seven targeted countries 'Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.The tours and dinners have visited Syrian bakeries, Yemeni restaurants, Iraqi restaurants and even found one Somalian spot that let them take over the entire restaurant.The response ' from customers and the restaurateurs, alike ' has been amazing. Every tour has been sold out. There have been eight so far, and many more are in the works. Breaking Bread hosted a dinner party at an Iraqi restaurant on a whim in Dallas, TX when Orlick was traveling there, and 100 people showed up to it sell out in two nights. And the restaurateurs themselves have been so touched by the support. One place didnt even want to accept money for the meal.All proceeds for the tour go to supporting theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations, which is one motivating factor for people taking the tour. But thats not at the heart of whats driving these tours.Mantis explains, You can talk about food and youre not talking about your differences, but finding your common ground over this common bread. Eating is not just a necessity its an intimate experience of culture. There is a profound human connection within the act of eating, and thats why it [the tours]works, because everyone is looking for ways to maintain that human connection.These tours give people a way to show support without making a big show of it. It teaches us that anything can be a political act. Even how you spend your lunch money can be a political statement, says Mantis.Breaking Bread has become a platform for other folks who are hoping to do the same thing in their own city. Weiner said he will talk to anyone who is looking for advice ' the goal is just to spread acceptance. The tours are about more than just the travel ban, so they plan continue do these events as a way to bring people together and create a better environment for understanding across cultures through food.Weiner says this experience has been amazing for him personally. It speaks to why Im involved with food, he elaborates. Its a way to connect, a way cultures define themselves, a way into somebody elses life. When you meet someone and go to their parents house for dinner, youre not just getting a plate of food, you get to see the way they eat their green bean casserole ' its a window into their culture.type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=58c18dc5e4b0c3276fb7821f,5891ecafe4b02772c4ea4eb5,588f3b41e4b08a14f7e6f3ee,5899e3ace4b09bd304bd8ad4,58a1ab3fe4b0ab2d2b170275 -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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