Run a Peace Feast
There are several ways to run a Peace Feast and different models you can adapt to your own community and setting.
Community Celebration
A ‘Community Celebration’ brings people together from different cultures in the same community. People may have lived side-by-side for years but never had the opportunity to sit down and really get to know people on their street.
A peace feast can change that.
Global Response
The ‘Global Response’ is a compassionate comeback to a crisis in the news. When a nation is hit by a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, a peace feast can be a way of acting in the opposite spirit, of saying to the affected community, ‘We’re here for you.’
Faith and Festivals
The ‘Faith and Festivals’ model is a way of bringing different faiths together to honour and learn about each other. This works well as a two-part Peace Feast, one hosted by a faith community at Eid and a follow-up event at Christmas for example.
A Peace Feast Mini takes the ethos of a Peace Feast and brings it to a smaller group of friends.
Perhaps you’ve made a new friend at a Peace Feast but feel like you’ve only just scratched the surface? Or maybe there’s a neighbour on your street who you want to know better?
A Peace Feast mini could be the next step
Peace Feast Mini
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Running a Peace Feast takes a bit of planning, so we recommend partnering with a local organisation such as a community centre, a school or a faith group, to help with things like selling tickets and promoting the event. Ideally, you could host your Peace Feast with someone from a different culture or faith in your community to really capture and model the vision.
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Peace Feasts are run in line with the values of Bridges for Communities. Please click here to check that you are in agreement with them before organising an event.
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We are here to help. If you’re thinking about running an event and you have some questions, then feel free to contact us and we’d love to support you.
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In general, events need to cover their own costs, and this is normally achieved by selling tickets. You may also consider a ‘Pay it Forward’ scheme so you can invite people on low incomes. Please see the Running Guide and resources below for practical tips on this and other topics.
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Whichever model you choose, and however you organise your Peace Feast, think about how you include the three key elements - food, stories & friendship.
Resources
You can download these resources for free, to help you run your first Peace Feast
Catering
In terms of catering, there are several organisations which model the ethos of Peace Feasts by working with refugees and marginalised people in their city, harnessing their culinary skills and using catering as a tool for empowerment and employment. It’s worth researching your local area to find someone who might like to partner with you in a Peace Feast. Here are some recommendations that we've come across...
1. The Refugee Community Kitchen (across UK) www.refugeecommunitykitchen.com
2. The Real Junk Food Project (across UK) trjfp.com, for Birmingham, see trjfpbrum.com
3. Migrateful (London and Bristol) www.migrateful.org
4. Welcome Presents (London) www.welcomepresents.com
5. Good Mood Food (Manchester) goodmoodfood.org
6. Coexist (Bristol) www.coexistuk.org
7. Food Revival (Leeds) www.foodrevival.co.uk
8. Shine Collective (Leeds) https://shinecollective.co.uk
9. Blackburne House (Liverpool) www.blackburnehouse.co.uk
10. Punjabi Junction (Edinburgh) punjabijunction.org
11. Milk Café (Glasgow) www.milkcafeglasgow.com