The last 2 lunches we went to, there was little conversation and a slightly little more awkward silences. Might I suggest maybe that we could put a simple theme to each month to talk about? Contemporary, random, anything in general, anything interesting, something constructive, something controversial (but not overly controversial), so on and so forth.

I'm only putting forth these thoughts as suggestions. It's quite alright if it's not doable, just worth contemplating.