The Big Lunch served £3.5m Lottery grant
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The Big Lottery Fund has presented a £3.5m grant to the Eden Project’s Big Lunch to help run the community event over the next three years.
The Big Lunch campaign encourages people in the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a drive to change community behaviour by strengthening relationships and motivating people to be involved with local activities.
According to the Eden Project, 86% of those that participated in the event last year felt better about their communities as a result.
The Big Lunch was founded by the Eden Project in 2009 and had almost a million participants last year. This year, the event takes place on 5 June.
The Eden Project predicts that, with added help of the £3.5m grant, up to 6.3 million people will take part in The Big Lunch over the next few three years.
Eden Project campaign director Peter Stewart says: “With this Lottery good cause funding it is our belief that the ambition to have The Big Lunch as a fixed event in the calendar, that is owned by the people, will take a major step to reality.”
The Big Lottery Fund is the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding and was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
Yesterday (14 February), Prime Minister David Cameron reaffirmed his mission to develop the “Big Society”, an incentive which aims to encourage volunteering and community activism.
Readers' comments (1)
julie weiss | Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:45 am
I manage a community nursery - Luton Street which is part of LEYF; a charity run organisation and social enterprise. I am passionate about multigenerational working and bringing the community together. Whether inviting the elderly for afternoon tea or supporting the prince trust and having youngsters come into the setting to engage. This supports social barriers and exclusion.
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