You Are More Than Welcome - A Big Meal Together

We want to invite you to become part of a Big Meal Together.

We are three people from outside of the UK who live here in Plymouth. We’ve come together to find a way to celebrate and say “thank you” to all the people from outside the UK who live here in Plymouth and contribute to the culture, health, safety, education and wellbeing of the city’s residents, against the odds.

The Big Meal Together is for all the people from outside the UK who live here in Plymouth and their allies (all of our family, friends & work colleagues who support us and keep us going with love & encouragement).

Our idea is to create a Big Meal Together - a community get together for 100+ people (originally planned to happen on Sat 18th of April 2020, but now postponed due to COVID-19, see our Updates Page for more info) at Sherwell United Church Hall on North Hill in Plymouth - with lots of creative workshops during the day, and a large-scale meal in the evening.

The Big Meal Together is a positive response to some of the negative things that lots of people are experiencing at the moment in Plymouth - where people from outside the UK are being made to feel less welcome and less appreciated. It’s also a reminder to anyone who feels they are in the minority, at risk of losing hope, feeling isolated or unloved that each and every one of you are WELCOME.

We’ve built our lives here in Plymouth. We are not guests. We are not here on holiday. 

We are here to stay, as citizens and part of this country. This is our home too.

Why do we need your help?

In order to make this event happen we need to raise at least £1650. 

This money will cover the cost of the venue, all the ingredients for the meal, and materials for the workshops. 

If we raise more money than we need, we’d like to split the proceeds between three great Plymouth-based organisations - DCRS (Devon & Cornwall Refugee Support), START (Students & Refugees Together) and Plymouth Hope FC - who all do excellent work in our city to help eliminate stigma around difference and promote social inclusion.

All the food & activities at the Big Meal Together are FREE. To make this happen we'll need your donations to help us cover the costs of the venue, cooking & workshop materials.

• Pledging £10 supports you or someone who is less able to afford it to come and share the Big Meal Together. 
• Pledging £28 supports you or someone who is less able to afford it to take part in the Food, Language & Art workshops we’ll be running.
• Pledging £45 would support a whole family or group of friends to and attend the whole event together.

Can I volunteer to help out?

We’re all working for free to make this event happen and we’d also like to find other volunteers in Plymouth who’d like to help out on the day too - perhaps:

• you’re great at moving chairs & tables?
• a washing-up wonder?
• someone with print-making or craft skills?
• someone who’d like to show others how to cook delicious food from around the world? 

Or maybe you’d like to help out by:

• driving to pick up cooking ingredients?
• could play music / sing / help entertain the crowd?
• or would like to help out with decoration / setup / pack down?

There’ll be lots of things to help out with, so please do get in touch to offer your time & skills!

You can contact us today at [email protected] to offer your time.

What have we got planned for the Big Meal Together event?

You Are More Than Welcome - A Big Meal Together will happen at some point in 2020 (see our Updates page for more info) at Sherwell United Church Hall, North Hill, Plymouth city centre. The venue has good disabled access, is very close to Drake Circus / Plymouth University and it is easy to get there by bus, on foot, or by car.

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12-4pm - Food, Language & Art workshops
// FREE & Pay It Forward option via our crowdfunding campaign

Come along to learn how to make food from different places around the world, learn some useful phrases in different languages or try out something creative in our print-making workshops.

We’ll be releasing more details of the workshops as they are confirmed - all of the activities will be family friendly and open to anyone interested in taking part.

6-9pm - A Big Meal Together
// FREE & Pay It Forward option via our crowdfunding campaign

A Big Meal Together is open to all the people from outside the UK who live here in Plymouth and their allies. We want to celebrate and thank each other for being here and extend that to all of our UK friends, families and supporters who help us feel at home and make our lives richer.

We’ll share food together made in the day’s workshops, get to know each other and celebrate being together in the city that has become our home. It will be relaxed, friendly, fun and informal - a nice way to spend time with friends, old & new.

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You can register your interest to come along to the Big Meal Together & Workshops via our Eventbrite page - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/96342495999

How does this project benefit people in Plymouth?

As Plymouth continues to grow, develop & change in 2020 and beyond, our community in the city gets more diverse, more exciting and more culturally rich. The Big Meal Together helps people from outside the UK who live in the city to feel less isolated, make friends, get to know each other and learn new things about each other's cultures.

We're also committed to sourcing our ingredients, equipment & materials from local businesses wherever possible - investing back whatever we spend on this project back into our city.

Who are some of the people & organisations already supporting the project?

Our Big Meal Together project is supported by Borrow Don’t Buy - Plymouth's Library of Things who give people in the city access to the things they need without costing the earth, and North Star Study Group - a creative learning project for adults based in Plymouth who want to learn together about the historical and present-day contexts and impacts of colonialism & colonial activity.

We also hope that Plymouth City Council will come on board to match each of your pledges pound-for-pound (upto 50% of our initial target) through their Crowdfund Plymouth scheme - doubling the value of your contributions!

If your organisation would like to help us with this project, please get in touch to chat about how we can work together.

How else can you help?

Every pledge and contribution is really valuable to our project, but we know that people don’t always have money to spare. If this is the case, there are lots of other ways that you can help us to reach our targets...

• Your recommendation - If you like our idea, be sure to tell your friends, family and colleagues about our Big Meal Together. If you can personally recommend this crowdfunder to just one or two people you know who would LOVE it, we'll reach lots more people than we could ever reach by ourselves.
• Sharing our crowdfunder on social media - By sharing and recommending our project to your friends, followers & contacts you can help to boost the number of people our project reaches. Crowdfunder reckons that each share on social media can equate to around £20 in pledges, so your shares could make all the difference!! Be sure to include a personal message for the best results.
• Volunteer - We'll need lots of help during the Big Meal Together event. If you're free on Sat 18th April 2020, please let us know & we'll match you up with some tasks you'd like to do on the day. Get in touch at [email protected] to offer your time.