"Connection is one of the most important things we can have and one of the easiest things to lose when life gets loud."
But it doesn't take much to find it again...
Why It Matters
So many people are struggling and feel alone, abandoned, sad, depressed, stuck and helpless.
So many of them don’t know how to get out of that…
But more importantly so many don’t know that the ones they love are feeling that way…
Until its to late.
When I was a twenty years old, I was with a sweet friend of mine at a party and later that night she took her own life. Then year later another younger teenage friend did the same.
How could I not know they were feeling so desperate?
What could I have done to let them know that we wanted them to stay?
Could I have given them a safe space ‘around the table’ to feel supported, loved and seen?
Could it have been prevented?
We’d like to share what we have done in a small way to make that change.
The Roseto Effect Study
The Roseto Effect study showed how shared relationships directly shaped the physical health and mental health of people by lowering stress and fostering a sense of belonging.
At the heart of their well-being were those shared meals.
Big family and friend tables where everyone gathered, talked, and found comfort, often without even realizing how much those moments carried them through their hardest days.
We See Ourselves In This
The Roseto Effect study isn’t distant or scientific to us
It‘s familiar because we are from Roseto and its about our family and it’s our story to tell…
The people of Roseto didn’t follow perfect diets, they didn’t have access to advanced healthcare and yet… they lived longer, with lower rates of heart disease than expected.
It wasn’t what they ate, it was how they lived.
They gathered… so we gather
They sat together… so we sit together
They shared meals, conversation, and time, so we do the same.
There was a sense of belonging that lived quietly in their daily lives, something that couldn’t be measured, but could be felt.
What This Is
This project was created as a response to something many of us feel, even if we don’t always say it out loud.
Life has become faster.
Schedules are fuller.
Meals are shorter, or skipped entirely.
And somewhere along the way we lost something simple, but deeply important.
This is a place to remember.
A place to gather the stories that still live in people, those moments around a table, family dinners, friends, conversations that stayed, laughter, silence and connection.
Because these moments shape us more than we realize.
Because connection doesn’t have to be complicated.
Because sometimes the smallest memories carry the most meaning.
And because what we’ve lost…
can still be found again…
one story at a time
An Invitation
If you have a memory of a table, a dinner, a moment that stayed with you, you’re welcome to share it here
in your own words
in your own way
Because even one moment filled with laughter and love can stay with you for alifetime
Created by someone who believes
that what happens around a table still matters
It’s something we’ve experienced
and don’t want to see disappear.
Created by Misty Stallard HHP
Press and media inquiries:
info@rosetoeffectproject.com
“Even a few minutes at a table… can change the way a person feels.”