24 successful summer meals ☀️🥗
Summer 2025 was impressive, but Summer 2026 has been magnificent!
This summer, our 10 groups hosted 24 meals, creating 980 social contact hours - time spent together by people who might have otherwise not met, or might have even spent that time alone. In contrast - between June and August 2025, our 7 groups hosted 13 meals with 578 hours of social contact.
What makes this all the more impactful is that our groups have achieved this in a year where there's been an extreme increase in far right activity in the UK.
In a year where hatred and division has been on the rise, our compassionate members and leaders have faced up to this...not only by continuing, but by also increasing the amount of safe spaces for people who are different from each other to come together over the simple, yet powerful, act of cooking and sharing a meal together.
We thank everyone in our community who has helped make this possible - whether you led or attended a meal yourself, shared a booking link with a friend, donated to support our work, or simply 'liked' something we shared on social media. You all contributed to making this happen, and we are so grateful.
What did you like most about the whole day?
“People's kindness and the way they treat others“ - Member, Norwich
Cardiff hard at work on their tablecloth, a beautiful final product of the Zine Workshops they've participated in led by talented artist Lucy Mebarki.
Thank you for reading 💜
The Local Welcome Team - Celia, Hannah, Andrew and Rhiannon