How food can bring people together
How to bring your community together with sustainable food that nourishes and supports our planet.
The ancient tradition of sharing food
Humans have shared food around campfires for thousands of years.
Food is how we connect with our communities. It brings people together and provides a social framework to share and communicate with others.
This ancient tradition has shaped our development, making us who we are today. Modern societies have lost many of the mechanisms that bring people together to share food, leaving us more isolated and fragmented.
Bringing people together with food is more important than ever.
It’s as simple as a Big Lunch
Here at the Eden Project, we started with a very simple idea.
What if, on one day a year, people came together with their communities and shared a meal?
And so, The Big Lunch was born. It’s the UK’s annual get-together for neighbours, with millions of people coming together for a few hours of community, friendship, and fun.
Food sharing ideas
Community food projects are all about allowing local people to take control of where their food comes from and connecting them with each other and where they live.
Here’s some ideas to help you start to bringing people together with shared meals.
Hold a Big Lunch
The Big Lunch is all about what happens when you bring people together to share a meal.
As we’ve discovered in the years since it started, incredible things can happen as a result of a simple lunch or cup of tea together. Friendlier, safer neighbourhoods where people start to share more – from conversations and ideas, to skills and resources.
Community fridges
A community fridge is a space that brings people together to share food, meet up, learn new skills and prevent fresh food from going to waste (Hubbub).
They’re often based in locations such as schools, churches or village halls. They take on food that would be otherwise be wasted to redistribute in the community. They are similar to food banks but are open to everyone, and operate on an honesty system.
Hubbub run a network of community fridges, and have lots of advice and resources on how to start.
Supper clubs
Supper clubs are another more structured way to bring people together to share food.
Supper clubs tend to have a theme and a menu and are sometimes ticketed to cover the cost of the ingredients. They can focus on a particular culture or cuisine, or be set up to support a cause.
People are encouraged to eat together communally and get to know others at the table.
Wild food and foraging
Inviting your community to look for the wild food on your doorstep can help everyone feel more strongly connected to where they live.
This might look like organising a walk to collect wild blackberries or apples locally and cooking them up into a cake or crumble to share together.
People often end up with gluts of fruit in late summer, so identifying overladen trees and offering to help with harvest can be a lovely way to connect your community. Often people leave excess produce out, or post on local social media, so keep your eyes peeled!
Shared and community allotments
If you’ve always wanted an allotment, but don’t have the time or resources to manage a full-size plot, sharing an allotment can be a good place to start. Splitting the workload and the decisions can make it feel less daunting – why not cook and eat what you’ve grown together?
Community allotments and gardens run similarly, but are usually led by a small team who make the decisions and set tasks for volunteers. Using an allotment or a garden as a base for people to come together, help out and perhaps share a cup of tea afterwards can be a really effective way to reduce isolation in communities. The produce can be donated or shared amongst volunteers.
Invite a colleague to share lunch
If you’ve got a workplace where it’s common for people to eat at their desks, make a point of taking your lunch to a communal area and inviting others to do the same.
Many of our opportunities to chat and connect with people over a meal have been lost in the recent decades – it’s now normal to eat at a screen while working, or watch the TV over dinner.
Sometimes starting a conversation can feel like more effort, but you’ll reap the rewards.
Community is how we create the future we want. It means coming together to try and make something better and to share love and food and expand your family to include your neighbours.
Emily, The Cherwell Collective
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The food on your plate matters
Around 50% of the habitable land on our planet is used to produce food to feed our population. The way that we grow food, by sowing crops, rearing animals and treating land, has a huge impact on the earth.
Currently, the way that we grow food globally is destroying ecosystems. And what’s more, once we’ve grown it, we waste huge quantities of food once it arrives at our shops and homes.
What’s on our plate really matters. The sorts of food that we buy and share with our communities are all important for the planet. Here’s how you can make a difference through your actions and choices.
0 %
of UK land is used for food production*
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food parcels distributed by food banks in the UK in 2022/23*
0 % +
of food produced globally goes to waste**
Introduction to Community Action course
Jam-packed with workshops, inspirational talks, networking and fun, the Introduction to Community Action course is for anyone interested in making a difference in their community.
Applications have now closed for our next online course, taking place in November. Join our waiting list to find out if places become available and to hear about upcoming courses.
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We’re working on ideas to make the Big Lunch as green as it can be. To help schools get involved, our education teams have created a simple lesson plan for key stage two to get pupils thinking about what ‘greener’ might look like. Designed to cover several areas of the KS2 Citizenship curriculum, this lively lesson plan will teach pupils about some of the simple actions we can all take to make sustainable food choices.
It’s a perfect compliment to our live lesson from the Eden Project rainforest! Watch the recording to hear a telling of our ‘Rainforest Big Lunch’ story and learn about the link between rainforests, food and The Big Lunch.
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