Being from the Dominican Republic, Ambar Cheuveret ’26, the lead student organizer for this year’s Breaking Bread on Feb. 6, is excited to try the plantains that will be served with a dish native to a country about 10,000 miles from her own.
“I’m looking forward to the plantains,” Cheuveret said. “I love plantains in any dish. Pairing it with Filipino chicken adobo is a good match.”
Since its launch, the two main focuses of Breaking Bread have been fine dining and meaningful discussion, both of which are planned by Unity House student volunteers.
“When it came to selecting food for the menu, we were very intentional,” explained Gregory Jain, Merrimack’s Director of Intercultural Initiatives. “We wanted to make sure we’d deliver something students don’t normally get.”
Each year at Breaking Bread, guests are presented with questions about personal experiences, culture and tradition to discuss openly with their tablemates. The three-course dinner, served between questions, contains selected dishes from all over the world.
Cheuveret and her team of Unity House student volunteers selected the courses based on the backgrounds of their friends or family, or simply out of curiosity. From there, the team worked with Sodexo, Merrimack’s campus dining team, to make sure the dishes were authentic.
“The focus of Breaking Bread is to share conversation with people who attendees may have never spoken to before,” said Cheuveret. “They share their upbringings, culture and backgrounds. With the menu, we wanted to share a little bit of the world. A big thing was catering to the different allergies on campus. We wanted to make sure that everyone can have at least one food in each course.”
This year’s Europe-centric first course features Italian Caprese skewers, Spanish Patatas Bravas and Polish pierogi bites. An Asian-themed second course follows Chinese vegetable fried rice, tofu with chili oil and the Filipino chicken adobo with plantains. For dessert, guests will enjoy classic American key lime pie and Latin American tres leches cake.
“The event’s called Breaking Bread, but we never really had bread at the tables,” laughed Jain. This year will rectify this omission. As starters, guests will snack on African mandazi sweet bread, Brazilian cheese bread and French baguette.”
According to Sheila Hurley, Sodexo’s general manager of conferences and events and catering, the breads will be crafted in Merrimack College’s own bakery by pastry chef Sean Pierce.
“Breaking Bread is one of our most cherished events,” she continued. “Watching students take the lead, planning every detail from start to finish, is truly a joy. Each year, we come together to explore new foods and flavors, making it a deeply collaborative experience.”
This is the first time Cheuveret is taking charge of Breaking Bread. Last year, she co-hosted the ceremony with Jandeliz Hernandez ’25.
“I love leading things,” Cheuveret said with a smile. “I feel like it is so much fun having that creative control and seeing how it all turns out the day of. Last year was great, but I feel like we’re planning things more ahead of time, which gives us more time to think about the layout.”
While the event is student-run, Jain was always available to help the team whenever they needed it.
“Ambar has been such a great thought partner and person to collaborate with,” he said. “She had really big shoes to fill and she went above and beyond. It’s been amazing to see Ambar take on that leadership challenge head-on and inspire other coordinators to potentially be in her shoes one day.”
