In honour of our first anniversary, we’re taking you on a little misty trip down memory lane this week, back to the origins and onwards through the continuing journey of Breaking Bread.

Join us, won’t you?

Our little ‘Breaking Bread engine that could’ got off to a rip-roaring start thanks in part to some amazing supporters in the small and independent business community who joined in and began tagging us in their posts so we could help give them some much-needed shout-outs in our posts, stories and roundups — many of whom continue to share the love to this day.

We can’t always cover everything they send our way, but it is continually inspiring to us to see how they all are surviving and thriving throughout this ongoing pandemic.

We genuinely love and appreciate all of y’all. Keep it up and keep connected with us! 🙌❤️

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.

We’ve been alternating photo and graphic posts on this feed since its inception, which gave us a chance to hit some high notes when it came to profound quotes from those in the industry — but also gave us a chance to flex the creative parts of our brain to inject a little much-needed humour into this ongoing industry struggle and try to lighten the load once in a while.

Swipe left to see some of the humorous handiwork from our team.

✅ We revised the days of the week to be a little more COVID-conducive. It was all a blur for most of us with hours melting into days into weeks into months, so who cared which ACTUAL day it was?

✅ We compiled a list of symptoms experienced by people suffering from ‘pandamnic’ (also known as ‘covidependency’) that included conditions such as: repeated use of phrase ‘It’s five o’clock somewhere!’; Agonizing over, ironing best pair of ‘dress pyjamas’ for Zoom meetings; and overuse of Ross Geller ‘PIVOT!!’ memes.

✅ We urged people to embrace the wide world of simple, complex and just-plain-delicious carbohydrates available via curbside pickup, takeout and delivery and advised folks to slip into a pair of those forgiving Joey Tribbiani ‘Thanksgiving pants’ and ‘fatten the curves’. (Yes. We’re big Friends fans here.)

✅ We touched on building ‘hoard immunity’ — in the Breaking Bread lexicon, a phrase applied when the population is sufficiently immune to stockpiling sundry items at an unreasonable pace. Remember those early days of the panic-buying sprees?

✅ When mandatory mask mandates came into effect, we reminded people of the benefits of wearing masks beyond keeping themselves and others safe, with tips like: ‘No more worrying about embarrassing post-meal food in your teeth’, ‘halitosis early warning system’ and being able to ’silently mouth curse words with nobody being the wiser’.

We sincerely hope we were able to inject a little humour to counteract the heartaches of the past year. 🥰

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.

In honour of our first anniversary, we’re taking you on a little misty trip down memory lane this week, back to the origins and onwards through the continuing journey of Breaking Bread.

Join us, won’t you?

This photo was from Day One of Breaking Bread — a proud group of Vancouver restaurateurs, chefs, somms and more who united in solidarity (and scrambled one sombre afternoon to get together for this pre-mask- and physical-distancing mandates photo) to urge public support of the local independent restaurant and service industry and those whose livelihoods rely on it by offering limited-time-only ‘Breaking Bread’ menus at participating establishments.

This core crew hailed from such local hospitality landmarks as @medinacafe, @wildebeest, @labattoir_van, @nubatown, @jukefriedchicken, @beetboxveg, @eatheritage, @origoclub, @havanavancouver and @belgardkitchen. While dine-in was soon nixed as rooms were temporarily shuttered, they also reinforced the message of supporting local establishments by taking advantage of pick-up and delivery service as well as by purchasing gift cards, subscribing to digital newsletters, engaging on social media and writing positive reviews.

Most of all, they reminded people to — in the now-immortal words of Bonnie Henry — ‘Be Kind’.

It was the earliest days of the pandemic, and we had no idea of the journey that all of us were about to undertake.

Our many thanks to this amazing and indefatigable team that came together to do everything they could to pitch in and give a much-needed lift to local at a critical time.

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.