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Everyone can be Kings and Queens in your community with these fabulously royal Jubilee crowns!
What you need:
To decorate:
Instructions:
The best thing about these crowns is you can make and decorate yours however you like, so hunt out some sparkly things and get making!
We would love to see how your Jubilee crown turns out so please get in touch and share your photos by emailing yourjubileestories@thebiglunch.com
Mayor of Armagh City and District, Councillor Freda Donnelly welcomed The Duchess of Cornwall to the Palace Demesne Big Jubilee Lunch today, one of the first events to celebrate their award of Lord Mayoralty status as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee honours.
The Duchess of Cornwall has recently become Patron of this year’s Big Jubilee Lunch, part of our annual campaign encouraging neighbours to get together to improve community spirit through food, friendship and fun.
Mayor Freda Donnelly said: “Armagh City and District will now be only the fourth city in Ireland, after Belfast, Dublin and Cork to have a lord mayor and we are delighted to host a Big Jubilee Lunch to celebrate with our local ‘Saints and Scholars’ including volunteers, fundraisers and charity workers, school children, lifelong learners and representatives of organisations honoured with Freedom of the City.
“It is appropriate at this time of Apple Blossom, one of the key events in our annual programme, to showcase the beautiful apple blossom and Armagh Bramley Apple, which recently received the international “Protected Food Name” status as the central theme of our Big Jubilee Lunch.”
Archbishop Robinson, re-enacted by Ralph Adams, one of the council’s Living History Characters greeted The Duchess of Cornwall and explained his vision for Armagh in the 18th Century as a city to rival Dublin both architecturally and as a seat of learning. The Duchess of Cornwall then joined the festivities in The Big Jubilee Lunch marquee, meeting ‘Saints and Scholars’ including local volunteers, fundraisers and charity workers, school children from Saints and Scholars Integrated Primary School and local Big Lunch champions.
Peter Stewart, Director of Campiagns and Communications at the Eden Project said: “We are thrilled and proud that The Duchess of Cornwall honoured Armagh with a visit today, in the beautiful setting of the Palace Demesne, and it was thrilling for the local ‘Saints & Scholars’ to be treated so warmly by her in their home town.
“It is a huge boost to our ambition to encourage people in Northern Ireland to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community.”
Find out more about the Jubilee celebrations taking place this year.
We’d love to hear what you’ve got planned for The Big Lunch 2012. Get in touch: yourstories@thebiglunch.com
Playing games at your Big Lunch is a perfect way to break the ice and get to know your neighbours a bit better. Kids will love the chance to play, and you might even get some of the grumpier grown-ups involved too!
We have just updated all of our fabulous ideas pages on the Big Lunch website; including some great new street party games and activity ideas to entertain your Big Lunch on the day.
Here’s an example of a great street party game to get the conversation flowing that everyone can join in on:
Community Treasure Hunt
Create a list of questions and give the list to all the Big Lunchers. Everyone has to try and find someone who fits the bill for each question. You only need a couple to get the conversation started. Here are a few ideas:
• Who has lived in the street the longest?
• Who’s the oldest resident? Who’s the youngest?
• Who was born the furthest away?
The winner is whoever has answers for the most questions by the end of lunch. You could even offer a prize to has learn the most about their neighbours in the shortest amount of time!
Get planning your Big Lunch entertainment now by taking a look at all our activities ideas. Or if you know of any great street party games or activities get in touch by emailing trudi.holden@thebiglunch.com
Social media networking has created a new world which is more open and connected than ever before, where friends, relatives and strangers all over the world can be reached within seconds. But what about the people who live just down the street?
A recent YouGov survey found that over 50% of UK adults would describe the community spirit in their neighbourhood as weak or non-existent. However, almost half of the people questioned, would like to become more involved but struggle to find the necessary time.
This is why the team at Streetlife has launched a local social network. We thought you Big Lunchers might be interested in joining Streetlife as it removes the awkwardness of knocking on doors and makes it easier for neighbours to talk to one another and exchange information or advice. Neighbours in Wandsworth, London, where the site first launched, say that they are now better informed about public services, events and local news with the result that 68% feel more connected to their local communities now.
The local social network is now available across the nation, but it all depends on people like you getting involved. Find out more and join your local community online at streetlife.com.
Love Food Hate Waste is actively supporting The Big Lunch this year with an aim to help us all have an amazing party but without any of the waste.
Did you know we waste over 7 million tonnes and £12 billion worth of good food and drink every year in the UK just from our homes, let alone what we waste when we’re eating out at picnics, BBQs or even restaurants.
But with a little planning, together with a few cool boxes and supply of freezer packs, it’s easy to be well equipped for keeping food safe, fresh & tasty for longer making sure we make the most of the food we buy.
Get the storage right and your food will keep for much longer. We waste around half the salad we buy – salad should always go in the fridge to keep it fresher for longer but next time if its looking a bit floppy and wilted put them in a bowl of water with a couple of ice-cubes and they will become nice and crisp again.
Around the equivalent of 2 million loaves of bread are chucked away each day by us – always keep bread in the bread bin or freezer (never the fridge). Fruit and veg is one of the top wasted food types – for example over 4 million apples are wasted a day – always keep them in the fridge (except bananas, whole pineapple, potatoes and onions) and preferably in their original packaging and keep things like sliced meats and cheese in an air-tight container in the fridge once opened. Keep an eye on pack instructions too for more information.
If you have bought anything approaching its ‘use by’ date pop it in the freezer as this acts like a pause button until the day before when you can defrost it overnight in the fridge to use the next day.
And finally strawberries and grapes make great novelty ice cubes for children and adults alike. Wash and place individually in ice cube tray. Freeze. Use instead of ice cubes in water, lemonade, etc.. and munch them when the glass is empty!
My top party recipe of the week is definitely Mini Falafel with Yoghurt and Cucumber Dip
The Big Lunch is also developing an exciting partnership with Zero Waste Scotland and its Regional Parnership Managers in Scotland. Zero Waste Scotland have some great ideas and inspiration for keeping waste to a minimum while you enjoy an afternoon of lunching with your community. We will be looking at ways that Zero Waste volunteers can hold their own lunches to promote their work and thank their volunteers.
For more hints, tips and recipe ideas go to The Big Lunch recipes section where you can find more from Love Food Hate Waste.
From Emma Marsh, Head of Love Food Hate Waste
Sweeten up your Big Lunch this June with this scrummy Fudge recipe from Big Lunch supporters Douwe Egberts. A perfect to street party recipe you can cut up and share with your neighbours…if you can bear to part with it!
Ingredients:
150g toasted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
100g glacé cherries, roughly chopped
450g light brown sugar
450g granulated sugar
250ml double cream
2 tbsp golden syrup
6 tsp Douwe Egberts Instant coffee (Pure Indulgence), diluted with 2 tbsp hot water
Method:
1. Line an 8 inch /4cm deep baking tray with baking parchment.
2. Place the sugars, cream and golden syrup in a pan over a moderate heat and stir until sugars are dissolved.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minut
4. Remove from the heat and pour into a food mixer along with the coffee.
5. Beat the mixture for 10-15 mins until the fudge loses its gloss and goes grainy around the edges.
6. Mix in the cherries and nuts and pour into the lined tin.
7. After 1 hour of cooling, score the fudge with a knife to create squares. When the fudge is set, snap into squares.
We have selected some of the yummiest street party recipes to inspire you on our new Big Lunch ideas pages, dips and drinks to hot and cold food to share.
Satisfy your sweet tooth by checking out the rest of our delicious sweet things recipes shared by our sponsors, Big Lunch team members and Big Lunchers like you!
The Churches Community Action Group, a sub-group of Churches Together in Salisbury, is hosting a ‘Big Jubilee Weekend’ of events to tie in with this year’s Big Lunch, aimed at bringing the Jubilee celebrations to even the most isolated and vulnerable of Salisbury’s residents.
The weekend’s activities will kick-off with a day of community action which will see over 300 members of local churches placed in small teams, tasked with carrying out a number of different tasks for local residents, including painting and decorating, gardening, tidying and cleaning. Each team of volunteers will be led by a member of St. Paul’s Church and will help a range of people, from those diagnosed with a mental health disorders, to the elderly and disabled.
Jon Langford, Associate Leader at St. Paul’s Church and key organiser of Salisbury’s Big Jubilee Weekend, said :
“The whole purpose of the weekend is to provide our church members with the chance to put their faith into action and serve local residents. We want the whole weekend to be an opportunity to help build relationships with our neighbours, to reach out to those so often overlooked, and, most importantly, to be good news for our city.
“All our volunteers will be recruited from local churches and all ages are welcome to take part; we urge all our members to get involved in any way they can.”
The Saturday will wrap up in style, with a big night out planned for the evening, with entertainment and activities to keep guests of all ages entertained.
Jon adds: “As part of our mission statement of inclusion and community for the weekend, we’re selling the tickets with a plus one included and, not only encouraging team members to come along to celebrate their hard work, but also to bring along either someone they helped during the day or any other persons in need from their local community.”
Find out more about The Big Jubilee weekend in Salisbury
See how other Churches are taking part in The Big Lunch here
Last Saturday Steve Burrell, from the Eden horticulture team, held a special Big Lunch seed sowing workshop in Truro, Cornwall to get some locals growing for their lunch. Here’s how he got on:
“On Saturday we sowed the seeds of a Big Lunch, not only in the minds of visitors to Truro Library, but also in reality, as participants tried their hands at growing their own Big Lunch Box.
Taking advantage of the morning sunshine, we set up out on the street, with seeds, bags of compost, egg boxes and other assorted recycled containers. We showed passers-by how to sow salad crop seeds into a plastic food container, which they could take home with them with the lid safely clipped on. Aftercare tips were shared, virtually guaranteeing leaf salad for the Big Jubilee lunch on June 3rd.
Radishes were the favourites for our younger guests, who made up the majority of our visitors, but we did manage to engage some Library staff and older potential gardeners as well.
We’re doing it all again on Saturday 28th April, 10.30-1 pm., which with Suttons SpeedyVeg, will still give you time to grow fresh home grown salad for your Jubilee street party.
By this time the Truro Library Community Garden will be well under way, and you can also sow some veg to help fill it.”
Steve’s tips top seed success, along with veggie growing tips from Landshare and much more can be found on our brand new Grow Your Own pages.
If you have any stories or pictures from a community garden project you’re involved in we would love to hear about it! Maybe you have created a gardening scheme with friends made at a Big Lunch, or perhaps you are planning a special Jubilee garden this year? Email us at yourstories@thebiglunch.com
Barbara Windsor MBE visited Madame Tussauds London yesterday, to bring together four wax figures of well-known faces from the worlds of music, history, sport and film, to show who she would most like to bring to a Big Jubilee Lunch table on 3rd June this year.
Barbara, who is the Mayor of London’s official street party ambassador, selected four personalities that she thought would bring something different and special to the table – ensuring the lunch was a ‘right royal knees-up’ to celebrate The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Her lunch companions were Jessica Ennis so Barbara could wish “her and Team GB the best of luck”, Colin Firth because as the typical English gentleman “he’s a lovely bit of eye candy, and it’s nice for the women to have someone to swoon over”, and the late Amy Winehouse “to get the sing song going” and Sir Winston Churchill “one of our greatest statesmen of all time”.
Barbara said, “I have some incredible memories of growing up in the East End of London, with everyone coming together for street parties. The Big Lunch is a fantastic way to bring back some of that community spirit of yesteryear.
“You might not have such a famous group of neighbours, like I have with me today, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting out the trestle tables and bunting and having some royal fun on Sunday 3rd June.”
According to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the organisation set up to protect and promote Scotland’s natural environment, over half of us are getting outdoors less than once a week. Two weeks ago however, when we bypassed spring and got a wee summer preview, it seemed that we were all outside, in our shorts and sandals, speculating that this was indeed our summer come (very) early and that we had better get out and enjoy it while we could…
Normally, our brolleys are never too far from hand. But, really, snow for Easter?! Not fair. Though this perhaps makes room for a new seasonal type of sledging/egg rolling hybrid outdoor activity?
Get outside and find some Simple Pleasures!
Our battle with the weather does perhaps affect our relationship with our natural environment and this is a huge shame considering the beauty and diversity of our landscapes, habitats and wildlife. As SNH promote, our landscapes are part of what make Scotland special and are among the country’s greatest assets. Through launching the ‘Simple Pleasures, Easily Found’ campaign, Scottish Natural Heritage are encouraging people to reconnect with the environment around them, to take some time out with nature and to explore their local area. Getting out and about, reconnecting, sounding familiar at all? We know that Big Lunchers enjoy simple pleasures- food, company and conversation- so since we are already connecting with our neighbours and communities, why not also think about reconnecting with our natural surroundings too.
The Simple Pleasures campaign is all about providing ideas and inspiration to help people enjoy the outdoors more often, encouraging people of all ages to open their doors to discover a world of fun and freedom. SNH are providing loads of information on how to spent more time outdoors in ways that are simple, doable, achievable and desirable, from free ‘Get Out and About Guides’ to providing top tips and simple activity ideas – www.snh.gov.uk is a great place to start.
So, now that Easter has passed and the eggs are all eaten, why not put away the fancy gadgets, turn off the telly and reconnect with the simple pleasures the natural environment has to offer. Get out stone skimming, kite flying, rock pooling, cartwheeling and tree climbing… Or, if the weather insists, eggy sledging?
Emma Smith, Big Lunch Scotland Intern
Big Jubilee Lunch 2012, an Eden Project
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