Big Lunch
By biglunchers | Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 14:50
Dear Big Lunchers,
A Big Thank you for your support in the first Big Lunch - we hope you enjoyed the day! We wanted to give you the full picture of the glorious celebration of community spirit you helped create across the nation on 19th July.
One of our organisers summed it up perfectly: "At the end of the day we felt we had a community spirit, which we didn't have before. Now when we see each other we say hello, good morning, how are you doing: we are on first term names, it's brilliant! People are actually smiling."
What happened:
On Sunday 19th July 2009:
Up to 2 million people took part - who knows how much more that might have been without the wind and the rain!
31% of those who took part rated The Big Lunch 10 out of 10.
The average score for Big Lunches was 8.1 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Big Lunches took place across every type of community including some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the UK.
34% Big Lunches took place in a closed street. We hope to work with Councils to provide greater advice on road closure procedures next year.
36% of the population are now aware of the Big Lunch: some 22 million people.
Thank you to everyone who completed our Organisers survey. Your feedback is vital in how we develop The Big Lunch 2010.
What people said
"It is a pleasure to know that the word 'community' is still alive. After The Big Lunch, I can strongly say that community spirit has been born from this event."
"I was thrilled at the response from my community which I have been in for years but which had become more fragmented in recent years."
"The oldest attendee was aged 93 and rarely leaves her flat as she is unable to walk... so she was thrilled to be in the open air amongst the neighbours."
"Just wanted to say the neighbours got together yesterday on my street (we have never done this... ever!) and we all had a great time chatting with each other. I got to know some 'new' faces and learn a bit of history about the street from some of the neighbours that have lived on the street for almost half a century!"
Check out the movie and photos
We captured some great footage of Big Lunches in this movie: http://www.thebiglunch.com/the-first-big-lunch.php
And Big Lunchers have uploaded their own photos to:
What happens next
We want The Big Lunch to be an annual event - almost like a Thanksgiving for neighbours. So let's use the momentum from this year's nationwide party to go on and make the 2010 Big Lunch even more fab.
Even if not everyone could make it to a Big Lunch themselves this July, we know some 22 million people did hear about it - and that over 9 million (that's 15% of the population) want to take part next year. So it's good news that 85% of Big Lunchers say they're looking to organise one for 2010.
The Big Lunch team is also gearing up for next summer, working with our sponsors and partners and joining up with new ones who can help us to help the nation throw a most spectacular bash in 2010 - and beyond.
We're still finalising the date, but if you want to start planning now, one thing you could do is to spruce up your neighbourhood by planting bulbs. You could get every family on the street to plant them in containers and pop them on the doorstep. When they come out in the spring it'll be a timely reminder to get the next Big Lunch off the ground in your community. You'll find all the resources to do this - before 30 November - at
For more information on the annual event visit the official website http://www.thebiglunch.com or contact The Big Lunch team at info@thebiglunch.com
The Big lunch team
Comments