Eating Together to Build a Community
A report on a project funded by Sussex Community Foundation, instigated and supported by Friends of Westdene Green.
Our plan, our aims and our values
“FoWDG wants to improve happiness, wellbeing and connectedness for as many people as possible in our community.” The area of Westdene had long been in need of a community space before the community action group (now Friends of Westdene Green) were able to rescue the Barn into local, public hands. This is a hilly area, with few meeting places and a preponderance of elderly population, prone to isolation. We therefore wanted to use and promote the barn as a local meeting place - a community lunch held on a regular, monthly basis, open to all local people, with opportunities for volunteering, met a local need and the values of Friends of Westdene Green. A Get Together to Eat Together project, could bring a wide spectrum of people, with diverse needs together with a shared aim of enjoying a ‘not for profit’ lunch together. The funding from Sussex Community Foundation enabled and supported this valuable but challenging project to get off the ground and build into the self sustaining event it is today. This has brought a great sense of pleasurable achievement and community spirit to the area, which could not have been attained without this funding. The team and our diners are hugely grateful. We have been able to create the lunch club we intended and the space for people to come together, who would not otherwise meet, bringing a real sense of happy pride for those touched by the event. The project’s development over its first year “…we would like to address issues of isolation and loneliness amongst elderly in our community by creating opportunities for them to feel more part of it. We want to do this by creating a free monthly community meal and social at The Barn on Westdene Green.” As there is not a full kitchen at the barn and we did not have the volunteers whose kitchens were appropriately certified at the time of starting, the funding enabled us to use the Real Junk Food Project to cater for the first few months. RJFP brought the food to us, providing an opportunity for discussions around food waste and local initiatives, that again brought the community together. Stories around war time rationing, growing food and the use of plastic created important threads of connection across the ages and experience of people in the room. We had some concerns as to how RJFP would be understood and received by our diners, however, due to the excellent quality of the food and the positive, open minded spirit of the event, this was a real success. During the first few months of the project, we spent time discussing how to get more people on board – we decided to
Whilst we had planned for the event to have specific entertainment after the meal, it was hard to get people to commit to this. Also, we found that guests and volunteers had enough to talk about together and this felt a more natural, positive use of the time. Whilst we would still like to invite speakers along, giving a voice to local people, this does not need to happen each month in terms of providing a service for the diners. Guests enjoyed the event and brought their friends, as did volunteers. The event thereby gained a sense of close community and belonging organically. |
The Junk Food Project was not able to continue supplying the food, so the group managed this between them, either using local shops to cater for us, or by sharing the cooking between us. As diners told us they particularly appreciated the variety and we could see how well our selection of puddings go down, we have understood and worked hard to provide as many different dishes as possible each time. We have also felt inspired by the positive comments regarding the presentation of the food, and enjoyed decorating barn appropriate to the month. This has lent a feel of aesthetic generosity and synchrony to the event.
Successes for the Project
A few quotes from our end of year, Christmas celebration meal:
184 meals served | 34 diners | 8 regular volunteers
What has the group learned
Going forwards – what’s next for ‘Get Together to Eat Together’?
FoWDG have agreed to support the project by offering the Barn for no cost and hosting the
Facebook page.
Having established a regular community of diners, each person now contributes on average £5
for the meal, although this is flexible for those diners for whom this is too much.
The group is now self sustaining, with a regular caterer and the financial support mentioned
above, we do not need outside contributions to continue.
We will be forming a committee, based on last year’s structure and information with the
following roles:
Successes for the Project
A few quotes from our end of year, Christmas celebration meal:
- “Thank you for the opportunity to chat with new and old friends over a lovely community meal.”
- “Well done to all concerned!”
- “Fantastic! “
- “Thank you for this precious and fun, intergenerational social.”
184 meals served | 34 diners | 8 regular volunteers
- Being able to reach hard to reach members of the community, whom we specifically wanted to target, has been a success. We have allowed word of mouth, our own canvassing and advertising to bring people through the door, without being discouraged by a slow start. We have a steady group of regular diners, who look forward to the meal and meeting up with one another here, as well as feeling valued guests!
- Managing to keep the event going despite lack of volunteers or difficulties with supplying food, and still manage to make the meal an enjoyable success. By focusing on the social aspect of bringing people together, within a shared aim of enjoying time spent over a meal, we have managed the challenges faced.
- The coordination and cooperation of the group, in particular the volunteers has developed a strong, willing team.
- Meals and recipes with new ideas and ingredients, have been appreciated by the diners.
- Connections across the community, rediscovered, discovered or made, have given a good sense of purpose and cohesion to the project.
- Hard to reach guests, with prohibitive factors such as access, disability and isolation, have been able to take their place at the table, through the patient and consistent encouragement of volunteers and other project users. The warm welcome ensures people immediately feel a sense of belonging and therefore become regular diners.
What has the group learned
- The importance of approaching people to come along in person, direct if open invitations.
- How important the provision of this regular, open, nourishing event was to the people who come.
- The value of a completely non-profit exercise for all members of the group – volunteers, regular users and community members who are able to come occasionally, but are aware of the event and gain a sense of community pride that we do this.
- To provide open access to all interested parties, in order for people to get involved at the point that they are able, for example offering a pudding, a lift, bringing a guest, organising statistics, enjoying the meal…
- The amount people have in common and can learn from each other in an event such as this. By simply offering a meal to everyone, natural connections and a sense of warmth in community is created, to the benefit of all.
Going forwards – what’s next for ‘Get Together to Eat Together’?
FoWDG have agreed to support the project by offering the Barn for no cost and hosting the
Facebook page.
Having established a regular community of diners, each person now contributes on average £5
for the meal, although this is flexible for those diners for whom this is too much.
The group is now self sustaining, with a regular caterer and the financial support mentioned
above, we do not need outside contributions to continue.
We will be forming a committee, based on last year’s structure and information with the
following roles:
- Chairperson, setting the agenda and coordinating tasks
- Treasurer, taking the money and repaying volunteers for ingredients etc.
- Secretary, taking the notes from meetings, data recording from events, and keeping records
- updated
- Communications and social media rep
- Caterer and menu coordinator
- Housekeeping rep – maintaining general resources, cleaning and decorating
- Diner rep to ensure views and ideas come forward from event users
- Volunteer representative – to be discussed – getting new volunteers, providing training etc.