The Big Lunch: Aiming to change our relationship with the neighbours

• Last year nearly a million people participated in the Big Lunch. Picture: Complimentary

There may be less than 100 homes in the area, but last year the retiree realised that she had never met many of her neighbours, let alone spoken to them. Keen to remedy the situation, she was given the opportunity when she read about The Big Lunch.

The concept behind The Big Lunch is simple: For one day, participants sit down to break bread with their neighbours. This could mean anyone from neighbours they've known for years to the people they've offered no more than a muffled "hello" to.

According to the organisers it can be "anything from a simple lunch to a full-blown street party with DJs and a home-cooked feast". It could even bring together people who live mere yards apart but have never met. Now in its second year, this year's event will take place on Sunday, and Sue is planning another get-together after attracting 50 people to her lunch last year.

"I suppose I was trying to regain that community spirit we had years ago," she explains. "Last year's lunch was put together in six weeks and we had everyone from babies to people in their eighties in attendance. It was particularly interesting to find out about all the various businesses and professions in the area; so many people do such interesting jobs, but we don't often know our neighbours well enough to know that. I met plenty of people whom I'd never spoken to. It made me realise that as a community we've become rather insular, probably because people's lives have become so fast and busy."

Tickner wanted to take things a little further than food, and organised numerous events including a mini-sports day and a fancy dress competition for children. "It was a huge success," she says. "I'd like to think that it's brought the whole community a bit closer together, and I'm hoping this year's event will be just as successful."

So when did our relationship with our neighbours go from chats over the garden fence to twitching net curtains? Where once we were more than happy to lend a cup of sugar to our neighbours, today many of us barely know them at all.

Peter Stewart, the campaigns and communications director at Cornwall's Eden Project was pondering this very question when he decided to do something about it, and alongside colleagues at the Project came up with the idea for The Big Lunch.

"The Eden Project is all about making positive changes, and realising that if we all work together we'll be better placed to tackle the challenges we're all facing," explains Stewart. "From climate change to crime, tackling these issue starts with social change and if we build stronger communities, we'll simply be better off. We found ourselves wondering what could happen if for one day the whole country just stopped and sat down for lunch with their neighbours."

Last year nearly a million people participated in The Big Lunch, but Stewart – who describes that as "a light snackette" – is working towards a day when the entire country will take part in the initiative.

Eighty five per cent of those who took part in 2009 said afterwards that the event made them feel happier and more in tune with their community, and that they would now be more likely to plan other similar events.

"A lot of fairly intense emotional stuff came out of last year's event," says Stewart. "We heard people saying things like 'I don't live in a house any more; I live in a community.' I've lived on my street for years, but since I helped to organise a Big Lunch for my neighbours last year my relationship with them all has been much more positive. We held regular meetings in my living room to plan the event, and one elderly lady said at one meeting that even if the event didn't come off, those last few weeks in that room had been enough for her."

The Big Lunch acknowledges that we're living increasingly isolated lives and that community spirit has faded, something backed up by numerous statistics. According to census figures, 97 per cent of British neighbourhoods are now more fragmented than they were 40 years ago, and by 2019 there will be two million more single-person households.

In addition, there was a seven per cent annual drop in trust between neighbours from 2003-05 and social trust in the UK is now among the lowest in Europe. And even our children are interacting less with their neighbours than they once did. A generation ago, 42 per cent of children played outside in the street more than anywhere else; today over 62 per cent of children play mostly indoors. However, more than half the nation admits they should make more of an effort to get to know their neighbours, and nearly six out of ten of people who have got to know their neighbours did so by chatting over the garden fence, proving that reaching out shouldn't be that difficult.

Stewart heard numerous success stories after the 2009 Big Lunch, and hopes this year's event will be similar. Last year in Brixton, Big Lunchers used wheelie bins as a wicket for street cricket, while in South London, a 91-year-old woman who was the street's oldest resident but hadn't been past her front gate for the previous seven months was invited and presented with a bouquet of flowers.

In Banbury, the local knitting club strung up 300 yards of knitted bunting for their Big Lunch, while at care homes across Cornwall, residents tried out line-dancing before tucking into cream teas.

Thirty-year-old Wendy Russell, who works within fundraising, is organising her first Big Lunch this year, on her street in Cambuslang, where she gained permission from the local council to have it closed to traffic for the afternoon.

"I moved into my estate three years ago, and always thought that something like this would be a good idea. The neighbours were enthusiastic too, but we never managed to set a date. So when I saw an ad for the Big Lunch I thought it would spurn us on to actually do it."

Russell has organised an extravaganza of a day, asking neighbours to bring along their favourite dish and a bottle of something. In addition to karaoke and a bouncy castle, she's organised a Britain's Got Talent-style competition where residents can show off their favourite party tricks.

"It's funny because all the kids know each other really well," says Russell. "Kids will be kids and they're much better at socialising than the rest of us. We realised that none of their parents knew each other very well at all. But even the organising of it all has really brought us together. And we've had a particularly good response from the people in the area who live alone and don't feel that they've had enough opportunities in the past to get to know everyone."

Street parties and neighbourly gatherings are of course nothing new to Britain, going back to Queen Victoria's tiara and teacake Golden Jubilee of 1887, and Stewart hopes that the annual Big Lunch will reach a point where the organisers can step back and people will continue to participate independently.

He admits, however, that the tradition for street parties is possibly stronger in England than north of the border, but hopes that might change. In fact, anyone living in Scotland who registers online at www.thebiglunch.com to organise an event for the 2011 Big Lunch will be contacted by organisers for the chance to win 1,000 to spend on their event.

For now, everyone's focused on Sunday's lunch, and Stewart is praying for good weather. "I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that come Sunday, across the country we will all be basking in some sunshine, enjoying some good food and good company and getting to know our neighbours a little better," he says. "What could be better than that?"

• The Big Lunch will take place across the UK on Sunday. To find your nearest event or to register for next year, visit www.thebiglunch.com

THE BIG IDEA

WHO'S BEHIND IT?

The Big Lunch is the brainchild of the Eden Project, a conservation tourist attraction which is housed in those iconic bubbly greenhouses in Cornwall. The team behind the Project believe that "the world can get better by working together, with nature, optimism and common sense," and managed to prove their point by turning a former china clay pit in Cornwall into an environment capable of sustaining plants from all over the world, via some pretty spectacular architecture.

HOW DID IT START?

A decade since the launch of the Eden Project, the organisers are still coming up with innovative ideas to tackle climate change, arguing that "global warming needs human warming." And that's where the Big Lunch comes in. It's a simple idea, but they hope that this small act of connecting people and communities will be the start of something even bigger.

WHY DO IT?

According to the organisers on the Big Lunch website: "We know that when people get together, we become more positive and start to sort out some serious stuff. By simply having some fun on one day in July, we can build new friendships that we can enjoy for the rest of the year. The Big Lunch is a chance for different generations and backgrounds to hear each other out and share stories, skills and interests. It's the start of a journey into rebuilding our communities."

WHAT'S NEXT?

It's important to the team that the event retains an organic feel, that they don't become overbearing in their organisational role and that participants take ownership of the day. "No-one in America asks 'who's in charge of Thanksgiving?' do they?" says Peter Stewart, Eden's campaigns and communications director. "We want it to be the same for the Big Lunch and we'd like to see a day where it just happens, without our involvement."