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The Big Lunch
By Charley Brinton | April 7, 2009
We at My Neighbourhoods, believe, and often preach, that being neighbourly, getting involved with your local community and meeting new people within it, can help to improve society as a whole, and our own individual lives. And we’re not the only ones.
Last summer we encouraged you to hunt down your local street parties and fairs, or even start your own. This year we want to tell you about an extra big street party type event taking place on 19th July around the country. It’s called The Big Lunch and is the brainchild of Tim Smit (of the Eden Project in Cornwall) and Paul Twivy. The idea is to encourage people to grow, make, create and share with their neighbours, in the form of a big street lunch, in the street, around tower blocks, on any inch of common ground. They have coined a phrase “Human Warming” - a feeling that envelopes us when we connect in a positive way with the people around us.
The Big Lunch also has an environmental element, encouraging us to grow and make with our own hands the food, entertainment, decorations etc for the event. All good stuff and exactly what My Neighbourhoods like to promote, plus we’re a perfect tool to help arrange your own Big Lunch in your area. To find out more about The Big Lunch, visit www.thebiglunch.com.
Topics: Neighbours, Neighbourhoods, News, Community, Local community |
May 15th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Love it! What a fab idea, I really would love to get the ball rolling, it would be great to bring every one together and get to know neighbours more, we could do face painting, apple dunking, silly games like pass the orange,not sure how we would provide music? would we need a generator? or just crank up the sterio? we could appoint special table lifters and have a BBQ area too- trouble is i’m very shy! The thought of speaking to everyone gives e butterflys and i may bottle it! Maybe i’ll talk to the council first and see if the will allow the street to be closed, then talk to some of the neighbours that i know and see what they think.
May 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am
If anyone is having a Big Lunch:
We’re on the lookout for Big Lunch stories to use in the media to really raise awareness of The Big Lunch, so if you’ve got an interesting story to tell we’d love to hear from you. Contact the Big Lunch team on
info@thebiglunch.com
THANKS
May 29th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
The Big Lunch - for those who are shy, why not put some of your ideas down and design a little flier and push them through people’s letterboxes, and/or put a poster in your window. Response 1 above for example has great potential for a brilliant afternoon - harness it and gather a few people together; there’s probably more people out there just hoping someone will take the lead!
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Saw you were writing about The Big Lunch and thought you might be interested in a competition we’re running ahead of the day itself. I am from Raindance, the organisation that promotes independent film and runs the Raindance Film Festival — we’re inviting people to make a film about the Big Lunch and offering two £1000 prizes for the best. There’s still time to enter the competition if it’s of interest. Full details are at http://raindance.tv/thebiglunch
June 29th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Due to unprecedented demand to enter The Big Lunch Short Film Competition, some filmmakers have been requesting a bit more time to complete their films. We’re pleased to announce that we can extend the competition deadline until midnight Sunday 5 July. Competition details at http://raindance.tv/thebiglunch
July 13th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Hi, I recently wrote to you about The Big Lunch Short Film Competition. Entries have closed but check out our fab finalists – the one with the most views on YouTube wins 1k! http://raindance.tv/news/09-07-2009/finalists-announced-big-lunch-short-film-competition
July 15th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Hello Big Lunchers!
We at The Big Lunch hope your preparations are on-track for Sunday
(don’t be put off by the changeable weather). Remember, you’re not
alone, but part of a humungous gathering the likes we’ve not seen in
this country for three decades!
Whatever you’ve got planned for the day, please, please charge your
cameras and mobile phones! We would love to see how your Big Lunch
went, so here are a few tips for capturing what we know will be a fun
day for prosperity!!
http://www.thebiglunchers.com/index.php/capture-your-story/
If you have any questions, do drop us a line: thebiglunch@freshnetworks.com
Good Luck & Have Fun on Sunday!