In a world of increasing violence, Peace One Day created Peace Day, September 21, a global day of nonviolence. But since its creation in 2001, struggles with awareness and participation have limited its potential. Peace One Day asked us to change that.

History is filled with examples of food bringing feuding people together in peace, like when opposing soldiers in WWI stopped fighting on Christmas Eve and shared plum pudding. Examples like this identified a basic human truth and offered a unique insight: food can lead to peace by bringing people together. It’s over food that we bury the hatchet, settle our differences, and create understanding.

This led us to create Recipeace, a social movement that brings conflicting people together over a shared meal, helping to bring peace to their own lives and to the lives of others, while at the same time raising awareness and participation for Peace Day.

Each element was designed to raise awareness and participation by turning ordinary meals into peace meals at the dinner table. Diners were greeted by the truce place setting, providing details for Peace Day and Recipeace, the olive oil bottle allowed guests to break bread together to begin settling their differences, and the table tents and check presenters juxtaposed weapons and food, reminding people to choose food over violence to bury the hatchet. Each element drove to RecipeaceDay.org, where participants could pledge for peace, tweet who should come together over food, and learn more about creating peace meals of their own.

Recipeace launched in Chicago, and in under four weeks, was embraced by hundreds of restaurants, grocers, chefs, and foodies, who each used the campaign elements to spread the word to the general public. From there, the campaign grew through websites, publications, and people around the world. Ultimately, Recipeace generated over 2.3m earned media impressions, thousands of tweets worldwide, and countless peace dinners throughout Chicago. More importantly, millions were made aware of Peace One Day’s mission, and the global community came closer to achieving peace, one meal at a time.