The Queen visiting the Eden Project in 2006

Since Eden Project kick-started the annual Big Lunch initiative in 2009, millions of people have held events, ranging from street parties and fetes to community picnics with neighbours. This year, people in all 54 Commonwealth countries are being encouraged to hold their own Big Jubilee Lunch events as part of the celebrations.

A copy of The Queen’s message will be included in every Big Jubilee Lunch starter pack, along with invitation templates, posters, a wall planner, recipes, stickers and seeds.

The full text reads:

I am delighted that the organisers of The Big Lunch are helping people from across the United Kingdom and further afield to hold Big Jubilee Lunches as part of the celebrations to mark my Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

I send my very best wishes to you and all of those who will be present for what I hope will be a most memorable and enjoyable event.

Andrew Hesford, who is planning a Big Jubilee Lunch in Liverpool, said: ‘It is fantastic to have this special message of support from The Queen. Her words are an enormous boost for every community taking part in a Big Lunch this year – including mine.’

Eden’s Peter Stewart commented: ‘We are enormously grateful to The Queen for her message of support. I’m sure everyone who is taking part in The Big Jubilee Lunch will want to join me in thanking her for her best wishes for a memorable and enjoyable event.

Some 10 million people came out in 1977 to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee so we hope a large number of people will take part in The Big Lunch for the first time in 2012 – joining the millions of us that have been doing it for the last three years.’

To find out how to join in the Queen Diamond’s Jubilee celebrations by throwing a Big Lunch on Sunday 3 June, take a look at Eden’s Big Lunch website. You can order your free Jubilee Big Lunch pack there too.

The biggest greenhouses in the world played host to what could be the longest picnic table today. A grassy roof between the iconic Rainforest and Mediterranean Biomes at the Eden Project in Cornwall was the setting for the 48m long picnic for a 100 people and a dog.

The spectacular feast was designed to be a “starter” for the Big Lunch, which encourages everyone in Britain to sit down with their neighbours in a simple act of community and friendship. The second annual Big Lunch is on Sunday week, July 18.

“The Big Lunch has grown out of an idea at Eden so what better way to remind everyone about it than to stage our own on the roof,” said Peter Stewart, Eden’s Campaigns and Communications Director. “This is just for starters. The main course will be when many thousands of people the length and breadth of Britain do their own thing on July 18. Lunches big and small are happening around the country and, even though the event takes place in just over a week it’s not too late to organise a simple gathering with your neighbours.”

To sign up to run your own Big Lunch and to play an exclusive Aardman Digital Shaun the Sheep game with a chance to win a family weekend break in Cornwall, see www.thebiglunch.com

*The makers of a 46m (151ft) picnic table in Dufur, Oregon, USA, have laid claim to it being the world’s longest.