This womens only community bbq event was a supportive and friendly afternoon for women and children in the local community to meet new people, eat delicious food and spend time outdoors in this lovely green space.
Offering a space for community events such as these is a great way to meet others in your local area.
These social events always bring much excitement and happiness, and one occasion, a lady came with a guitar (we later realised she is part of a successful local women's band). Full of enthusiasm and energy, she got others signing along and learning the guitar too..
Everyone was sat on the timber benches under the large Beech trees, sun shining and singing along to anything the others might suggest. She was more than happy to share the guitar with others and help them learn a few chords. This was a wonderful afternoon with woman sharing different tunes and music stories from their native countries.
First, a bit of interesting insight into the tasks for the day, because before everything got going, things needed to be set up. A few of us arrived early to set up the gazebo, the food tables, prepare the vegetable skewers, with the delicious assortment of chopped and marinated vegetables, sort the bowls for bread and crips and ensure the seating areas were ready.
🌱HANDY HINT:
Hosting a community social event brings an abundance of happiness, relaxtion and fun to everyone involved
An amazing positive output to hosting an event like this at the allotment, is to see the joy on the children's faces as they dash around the bushes, scramble up the woodchip paths and let their imaginations come alive by playing in this stimulating garden settings.
Other than the children running around all day, a range of activities were also planned with them, which included cat and mouse games to dodge each other, helping to harvest the salads for the picnic, identifying flowers and snail hunting.
It's very rewarding to watch children grow and learn in this space, from arriving and being so nervous, not talking much, didn’t like getting dirty and being terrified of any bug that moved - to a complete change in behaviour, of happily talking to the volunteers, curious about all the plants and not bothered by insects or birds anymore.
Once the bbq was hot enough, on went the food, as this was a social bbq/picnic event it was also advertised as bring and share, it was surprising how many different foods people brought with them, which completely filled the 2 picnic tables, there was definitely more than enough food for everyone, and once all cooked, freshly picked and chopped salads ready, everyone sat wherever they felt comfortable, relaxed, chatted and enjoyed the afternoon.
This event was a one day social event which ran from 12pm until 4:30pm, and brings an abundance of happiness, relaxtion and fun to everyone involved! After everyone had said their goodbyes, shared numbers and made their way home, a few of us volunteers remained behind to help tidy, wash up, sort the bins and get the site ready for the following day which was to be a volunteer gardening day.
Thanks for reading 🙂🌱 if you have any community gardening stories or experiences, we would love to hear from you!