Our community lunch project was officially launched in the summer of 2024 to enable foodbank volunteers, recipients and neighbourhood residents to have a sit down meal on Saturday lunchtimes.

 It enables people to find out about foods from a variety of countries – we have had dishes from Nigerian, Ghanaian, Zimbabwean, Motswana, Ugandan, Kenyan, Namibian, Somalian, Chinese, Zambian and Malawian cooks who have made a large variety of dishes for us to enjoy.

The project was made possible through a grant from Northamptonshire Community Foundation. The funding enabled us to buy a variety of foods, including maizemeal, fish, plantain, fufu, garri, beans, fruit, rice, vegetables, herbs and spices, condiments and soft drinks.

The lunches have been enjoyed by a wide variety of people of all ages, backgrounds, races and faiths. To date (Feb 2025), over 1500 have enjoyed the community lunches and we would like to continue the meal as it enables people to connect over delicious and nutritious food, it enables us to find out and taste food from different cultures. Most memorable was chicken feet made by Zimbabwean cooks (not many people unfamiliar with the dish were prepared to sample the chickens’ feet). Popular dishes were African sweet potatoes, tilapia and chicken liver. We also tasted waakye, forɔeɛ from Ghana. Of course there have been jollof rice dishes from both Nigerians and Ghanaians with each side claiming to make tastier jollof (the judges need to sample more before they make their final decision).

The community lunches have also enabled the creation of friendships and have been very beneficial to isolated people.

In addition we have invited a number of people and organisations to join us including Miss Africa GB 2024, Royal & Derngate, Gamcare, and University of Northampton student volunteers.