Today’s theme for our Resourceful Big Lunch week is building a bigger community; whether that means getting to know just one new neighbour, or expanding your annual Big Lunch to include the next street along.
But once the chairs have been packed away and the food has all been eaten, what else can you do to keep that community spirit alive?
- A great way to keep a feeling of neighbourliness on your street is to start a Street Association. That way you can keep in touch regularly with people you met at your Big Lunch, and start to work on projects together which would benefit the whole community.
- Explore local groups or volunteering opportunities and get involved in other fun projects. From Timebanking or helping your local community centre; to joining in with the WI, Rotary or Scouts clubs.
- Organise your next activity as a street. Big lunches over the years have gone on to organise Egg co-ops, summer fetes and Christmas Panto coach trip; all ofter first meeting their neighbours at their Big Lunch
- Plan a bigger Lunch for next year. Why not involve the next road along, or team up with other organisations locally to invite more people along. The more the merrier!
- Get involved with Big Lunch Extras – a new project to help people make positive changes in their communities. Get stuck in with their weekend bootcamps at the Eden Project, regional workshops and online forums; to get all the skills and inspiration you need to take your community activity to another level.
Watch Big Luncher Ali Womacks Top tip for resourceful Big Lunching:
Get inspiration from the experts
We think some of the best ideas for resourceful Big Lunching come from Big Lunchers themselves. From a fundraising BBQ at a local sea pool in Cornwall, to a Gumtree Inspired Big Lunch in Cardiff; over the last 5 years we have heard of some great stories of how people connect with each other, get creative and make their event a successful with little time or money!
Watch Chipping Sodbury Big Luncher Ali Womack’s top tip to resourceful event planning:
Get involved today:
- Check out our Big Lunch case study blogs and get inspiration from previous events
- Did you organise a Big Lunch on a shoe string or has your community pulled together to make an event a resourceful success? Get in touch: yourstories@thebiglunch.com
- Join in with our final Twitter Q & A today chat at 2pm today with Big Lunch Extras; who share their thoughts on community resourcefulness and why they think it’s important for people to get together.