CENTERVILLE, Ga. — Every Wednesday morning in February, the Macon Food Story will take you inside several houses of worship where the connection created by sharing a meal builds relationships.
Whether it's Muslims, Christians or other religions, there is a long history of distrust, disagreements and even wars when people of different faiths get together.
Over the last few weeks, we've shown you how food has been able to bring people of the same faith together for fellowship.
But there's another group in Central Georgia using food to bring women of many different religious backgrounds all to the same table.
"It just seems like every faith -- and I'm Christian -- and from every denomination, it seems like food is such a common denominator, it just brings people together,” said Margaret Mathews, a member of Women’s Interfaith Alliance planning committee.
She helps plans events with the alliance and says food is a great tool to help unite women of different faiths.
"You realize that the whole world is kin when you sit around a table and share food,” she said.
Eman Abdulla is one of the founding members of the alliance and she believes food can lead to friendship.
"It's a saying in Arabic and I guess it's a common saying in all cultures, if you break bread with somebody then you reach a level of intimacy that wasn't there before. You start becoming friends with that person,” said Abdulla.
Food is helping turn fear into friendship.
"Barriers just come down and at first we didn't know what to expect because again, you hear the negative things, but then you realize those negative things come out of ignorance and fear,” said Mathews.
"It's very important in this era, in this time that people who hear about each other, maybe negatively, maybe there is a barrier of silence between different groups, that we break those barriers and that we bring people together and we share. We share our thoughts, we share our cultures, we share our food with them. This is a step towards building bridges,” said Abdulla.
The Women's Interfaith Alliance meets monthly at different locations throughout the area. You can find their schedule here.
Want to talk more about food and fellowship in Central Georgia? Join the Macon Food Story group here.