The Big Lunch

Sunday July 19

Imagine on one day of the year, in every home across the nation, we all got up with a single purpose in mind. We are going to have lunch outside, on the street, with our neighbours. We will have prepared it ourselves. We will be doing our thing: a bring-your-own, open-air party for 61 million people.
We are calling it simply The Big Lunch: a day - Sunday, July 19 - when, for four glorious hours, cars will stop, wardens will stop, egos will stop and Britain will come together in the street to meet, greet, share, sing, dance, play and laugh for no reason other than we all well need to.

The Big Lunch is the latest ambitious idea from the Eden Project, in partnership with MasterCard, EDF Energy and the Royal Mail Group and we're inviting everyone in the UK to come together to have lunch in their streets on one day.

Most of us are shy, many of us lead single lives and even when we are together often go our own way. Ninety-seven per cent of neighbourhoods are more fragmented than they were 30 years ago. We just don’t gel the way we used to. Isn’t it crazy that 10 million of us are networking regularly online yet we barely know who lives next-door? Yet, inside almost everyone there is a notion that despite our differences, the ties that bind us are important. The Big Lunch is your excuse to cut loose. You’re all invited. Every man, woman, child, cat, dog and bird from every type of community, from best-kept hamlets to inner city estates to prisons and hospitals, all are welcome. All we ask is that you come as you, open-minded and up-for-it.

There are lots of ways for people to get involved, from growing their own food and flowers to forming a band or creating a piece of pavement art. Discover common ground across age, class, faith, race and the garden fence. Remind yourself charity begins at home, or at most, a couple of doors away. Reclaim your street as a place to share stories and balloon blowing when you run out of puff. Rediscover the things you once knew but forgot, from baking bread to breaking the ice with neighbours, so the familiar feels new and the new feels familiar.

It may be tricky, it may feel slightly uncomfortable to start with. It takes a bit of courage to stop being a stranger. But think of the prize - to be able to walk down the street and into the wider neighbourhood and realise how many good people there are who, acting together can create a real sense of community - a word that in Latin means; "together - in gift"’.

Why has the Eden Project launched the Big Lunch?

A short word from Tim Smit, CEO and co-founder

The Eden Project is an attitude to life, the first expression of which was the creation of the greatest conservatories in the world in a crater in Cornwall. Its mission is to point out our total dependence on the natural world in ways which don't feel preachy and to demonstrate aspects of behaviour and thinking that encourage us all to explore the boundaries of what is presently called Sustainable Living.

The Eden Trust is an educational charity with projects both at home and abroad that develops educational programmes and events based on the philosophy that the challenges that are facing us should be viewed as opportunities that make us give of our best. The Big Lunch is one of the most important of these projects.

Find out more at the Big Lunch website.