History — Kafenia Peace Collective

From a living room on election night to gatherings that circled the globe.

Kafenia started as monthly pop-up gatherings, intending to eventually open our own cafe/community gathering space. We had three seasons: fall, winter and spring, culminating in what we called a Peace Meal, a meal in solidarity with community members affected by war and conflict. In addition to gatherings, there were many efforts to weave folks together into a deeper community, becoming friends outside of gatherings, sharing each other’s projects or helping you find a way to get involved in social justice work.

The decade, year by year

Kafenia started as monthly pop-up gatherings, intending to eventually open our own cafe/community gathering space. We had three seasons: fall, winter and spring, culminating in what we called a Peace Meal, a meal in solidarity with community members affected by war and conflict. In addition to gatherings, there were many efforts to weave folks together into a deeper community, becoming friends outside of gatherings, sharing each other’s projects or helping you find a way to get involved in social justice work.

“If you looked at all of the solutions proposed by scientists to combat prejudice and racism, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more effective antidote than intergroup friendship.” — Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton

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We started gathering monthly in 2016 in downtown Palo Alto at Una Mesa, with themes such as democracy, peace, the land — and were surprised when many people from Lebanon, Algeria, Libya and beyond started to join us. In the midst of Trump’s first Muslim ban, Kafenia was a haven for our many friends with roots in other lands, and especially a cultural home for those with whom Greece shares food (phyllo) and hospitality traditions from the Mediterranean and Middle East. We ended our season (September – May) with our first Peace Meal, a gathering in friendship with those affected by war and conflict, in the first case led by our friend Mohamed: a Libyan iftar.

After three seasons at Una Mesa, we had to move in 2019, and were graciously welcomed by Cafe Zoe in Menlo Park. We moved from monthly to weekly gatherings, with fall (welcome), winter (connect) and spring (contribute) tying into our themes. The (mostly) Greek village food continued, with deep dialogues around: what does it mean to live on indigenous land? When COVID hit, we went virtual, meeting online, and pivoting, along with our ‘contribute’ theme, to COVID response based on what our community was seeing. It was probably some of the most powerful work we ever did.

We kept holding virtual space, and Mary Jane started to feel called to work on peacebuilding in her own Greek ancestry with Turkey and the Balkans. She founded Ottoman Healing House in 2022 under Kafenia, and was so transformed she felt called to continue studying Ottoman history and peacebuilding.

As we came out of COVID, we moved from virtual to in-home gatherings, still continuing some of our favorite traditions: the holiday book exchange, annual iftar, bilingual poetry circle, Passover Seder with an inclusive Haggadah. Beautiful new people came, such as Shegun who led One World Cultural Connection gatherings, but we never quite built the momentum we had before COVID. And Mary Jane’s dream of opening a permanent public space was cut short by the high cost of space and COVID.

Kafenia also expanded our horizons starting in 2023, speaking at a United Nations conference on Cultural Diplomacy in New York with Evelyne (Karat School Project) and Mohamed, and then Mary Jane went to Doha, Qatar for a UN World Social Summit with Evelyne, as well as the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2026.

We had a beautiful 2024–2025 season, bringing on two new staff — Rose and Karla — who helped shepherd our final year of programming, including a collaboration with Magical Bridge Playground to host deep intergenerational dialogue as part of the first Friendsgiving. In the end, for financial, personal and practical reasons, we decided in July 2025 to close our doors.

A group wanted to keep gathering, and formed under a new umbrella — Global Heartbeat — informally and not as a non-profit. Kafenia regulars Barbara, Karla and Mari are part of the new Global Heartbeat, and Mary Jane just finished a Masters in Global Studies/Peace Studies at UC Berkeley, with hopes to do a PhD and consult on peacebuilding. The spirit definitely lives on, and Kafenia will always be loved!

2016–2019

Una Mesa, Palo Alto

We started gathering monthly in 2016 in downtown Palo Alto at Una Mesa, with themes such as democracy, peace, the land — and were surprised when many people from Lebanon, Algeria, Libya and beyond started to join us. In the midst of Trump’s first Muslim ban, Kafenia was a haven for our many friends with roots in other lands, and especially a cultural home for those with whom Greece shares food (phyllo) and hospitality traditions from the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Summer 2016

The origin

The idea takes shape

Mary Jane participated in the Uptima Boot Camp for social entrepreneurs, evolving a vague idea of a “global cafe” into something rooted in her own Greek heritage. She remembered her grandfather’s kafenio at 16th & Folsom in San Francisco in the 1920s — and reimagined it: a kafenio open to everyone, with food, friendship, and the feminine spirit front and center.

A friend offered “Una Mesa,” a house in downtown Palo Alto, for the first prototype, which was initially called The Ameldies Cafe, named after her grandfather’s village.

Una Mesa, downtown Palo Alto, 2016 — photos from our first prototype pop-up.

November 9, 2016

The spark

Una Mesa — election night

The night Trump was unexpectedly first elected, 25+ people gathered in a Palo Alto living room from every corner of the world — Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, South America. They sat in shock, then in circle. Their diversity brought them hope. We grappled with the question: what does democracy mean to you? “Our common humanity: yummy food, global friendship & peace.” Kafenia was born that night.

Una Mesa, election night, November 2016 — photos from the gathering.

2017

Finding rhythm

Monthly circles begin

Monthly gatherings on the 3rd Wednesday at Una Mesa, each exploring a primal theme — belonging, democracy, peace, the land, storytelling — with shared food, dialogue, and song. The recipe for the village was taking shape: 1 cup food, 2T heart space, ¼ cup culture, 1 handful friendship, ½ cup peacebuilding, 1 big circle. In July 2017, Kafenia hosted its first pop-up at Cafe Zoe in Menlo Park (Kathy played, they danced!).

Kafenia Village Ingredients, 2017 — the recipe board for the community.

2017

Peace Meal

The Libyan Iftar — 30,000 likes

Kafenia’s first Peace Meal honored the Libyan community, led by our dear friend Mohamed, with a Ramadan iftar. It was powerful not just to share food, but to fast for a day together. Photos of the Silicon Valley gathering spread across Libya and went viral — 30,000 likes. A table in Palo Alto reached across the world. The Muslim Ban was still raw; this meal was an act of witness and love.

The Libyan Iftar Peace Meal, 2017.

June 2018

Peace Meal

Côte d’Ivoire & Liberia — a school rebuilt

The 2nd Peace Meal honored war survivors from Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia through storytelling circles and dancing under the fig tree, village-style. The event sold out and raised enough to rebuild a school back home. “When the village chief heard the news, he started crying. He couldn’t believe it.”

Côte d’Ivoire & Liberia Peace Meal, June 2018.

November 2018

Milestone

Registered as a nonprofit

Kafenia Peace Collective was officially registered as a nonprofit. The vision was sharpening too: guided by Monica Sharma’s transformational leadership approach, the team realized it wasn’t enough to just connect and support people — the world also needed to be measurably better. An intentional civic engagement component was added to the mission.

Planning the village · 2018–2019 — personal business model canvas with sticky notes

2019–2020

Cafe Zoe, Menlo Park

After three seasons at Una Mesa, we had to move in 2019, and were graciously welcomed by Cafe Zoe in Menlo Park. We moved from monthly to weekly gatherings, with fall (welcome), winter (connect) and spring (contribute) tying into our themes. The (mostly) Greek village food continued, with deep dialogues around questions like: what does it mean to live on indigenous land?

Fall 2019

Weekly home

Wednesday evenings begin

Every Wednesday 6–8:30pm at Cafe Zoe: earthy Greek meze, one pot meal, cross-cultural gathering, dialogue and song. Thank you to Kathleen for sharing her space. A true weekly home base for the community — friends, meze, music, and something that felt more like a village than Silicon Valley had ever offered.

Fall: WelcomeWinter: ConnectSpring: Contribute

Friends, meze & music at Cafe Zoe, 2019–2020.

November 2019

Peace Meal

Dreamer’s Peace Meal

Celebrating undocumented Dreamers from Sequoia High School — young people whose lives and futures were on the line. A gathering of solidarity, love, and civic engagement, led by dear Kafenia friend Sarahi Espinoza Salamanca. This meal planted the seeds of the partnerships that would power Kafenia’s COVID response just four months later, and directly sparked the First of the Month Rent Fund.

Dreamer’s Peace Meal, November 2019.

2020–2021

The virtual village

When COVID hit, we went virtual, meeting online, and pivoting, along with our ‘contribute’ theme, to COVID response based on what our community was seeing. It was probably some of the most powerful work we ever did.

March 2020

COVID response

When the world stopped, Kafenia showed up

Within one week of COVID shelter-in-place, Kafenia pivoted to full community crisis response. Four years of deep trust made rapid mobilization possible. We gathered our community who were already on the front lines — Evelyne with RV families, Sarahi with Dreamers, Kala with COVID-vulnerable communities through Umoja Health.

350+ families helped

The First of the Month Rent Fund, with Dreamer’s Roadmap and Live in Peace, provided multiple months of rent during lockdown. Covered by the SF Chronicle and NBC News.

$100K for RV families

Led by Karat School Project, Kafenia helped connect Palo Alto Community Foundation to families in RVs on El Camino Real — redistributing nearly $100K for food, education, and survival.

Weekly virtual gatherings

Every week through the pandemic, Kafenia gathered online — keeping the village alive through screens and grief.

The world we are working toward, 2020.

2020–2021

Virtual village

Weekly online gatherings

Mary Jane worked full-time to keep the village alive through screens. Weekly virtual gatherings reached a wider circle than ever before — including a moving session with Laura Gao on her Wuhan graphic novel, and Paul Bocanegra’s unforgettable session on navigating shelter-in-place from inside solitary confinement. “He was completely fine. We were all stressed out.”

Virtual gatherings, 2020–2021.

2022–2024

The living room era

As we came out of COVID, we moved from virtual to in-home gatherings, still continuing some of our favorite traditions: the holiday book exchange, annual iftar, bilingual poetry circle, Passover Seder with an inclusive Haggadah. Beautiful new people came, such as Shegun, who led One World Cultural Connection gatherings, but we never quite built the momentum we had before COVID.

2022

Deep healing

Ottoman Healing House journey

Driven by Mary Jane’s recognition that she could not be an effective peacebuilder without doing her own work, a small group of Kafenia friends dove into a year-long healing journey addressing their Ottoman histories — a process of healing ancestral wounds and reclaiming shared diversity through expressive arts, deep listening, and cross-cultural dialogue. Mary Jane founded Ottoman Healing House under Kafenia, and was so transformed she felt called to continue studying Ottoman history and peacebuilding.

Ottoman Healing House journey, 2022.

2023

A wider stage

UN Forum on Cultural Diplomacy

Kafenia spoke at the Forum on Cultural Diplomacy at the United Nations in New York City in November 2023, with Evelyne of Karat School Project and Mohamed — representing Silicon Valley’s grassroots peacebuilding work on a global stage. Mary Jane later went to Doha, Qatar for a UN World Social Summit with Evelyne, and to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2026.

Meanwhile, Silent Walk for Peace in the Middle East, Deep Listening Circles, and Deep Action Circles continued locally — building peace from the inside out even as the world grew more turbulent.

UN Forum on Cultural Diplomacy, New York City, 2023.

2024–2025

Our final season

We had a beautiful 2024–2025 season, bringing on two new staff — Rose and Karla — who helped shepherd our final year of programming. In the end, for financial, personal and practical reasons, we decided in July 2025 to close our doors.

2024–2025

Rebuilding

Friendsgiving & new staff

Kafenia brought on two staff members — Rose, our Cultural Program Manager and Assistant Director, and Karla, a Village of All Together Fellow — and launched consistent newsletters. Led by Magical Bridge, Kafenia helped bring deep intergenerational dialogue to the first annual Friendsgiving, which had a huge community impact.

Kafenia Friendsgiving, 2024–2025.

2024–2025

Mini-meetups

The global heart, in smaller rooms

A WhatsApp group launched along with smaller “mini-meetups,” keeping the village spirit alive between larger gatherings. Small groups meeting at restaurants, homes, and coffee shops — the same warmth, the same curiosity, the same cross-cultural magic, just at a more intimate scale. On Friday afternoons, photos from mini-meetups would arrive and Mary Jane realized: “She exists. The global heart is pumping and thriving here in Silicon Valley.”

Kafenia mini-meetup · Silicon Valley · 2025

The quest for a space

Kafenia began as a pop-up — a table set in borrowed rooms, month after month. But the intention was always a place of our own: a café and community gathering space where the door would be open, the coffee would be on, and the village would have an address.

Why it didn’t happen

In the end, the cost of space in Silicon Valley and the support of donors weren’t quite there, and it was hard to regain full momentum after COVID. Rather than stretch the organization past what it could carry, Mary Jane made the decision to close Kafenia.

The room never opened. The village did — and it is still here, in the friendships, the projects, and the people who carry the practice forward.

“The intention is deeper than a physical space. The village of all together — that spirit lives on.” — Mary Jane Marcus

The spirit lives on

A group wanted to keep gathering, and formed under a new umbrella — Global Heartbeat — informally and not as a nonprofit. Kafenia regulars Barbara, Karla and Mari are part of it. Mary Jane just finished a Masters in Global Studies/Peace Studies at UC Berkeley, with hopes to do a PhD and consult on peacebuilding. Kafenia will always be loved!

Keep the spirit alive