This year was my first time organising a Street Feast within #ChangeX100. I had come across the idea via my newsfeed on facebook. It took just 10 minutes to read what it was all about. I turned to my husband said wouldn’t it be a lovely thing if we could do the same in our own community.

I was extremely surprised just how simple it was to organise such an event. I’ve learned from older neighbours now that the Street Feast was actually a tradition that died about 40 years ago, I’m glad I could bring it back and the plan now is to do more Feasts later this year and to do bigger ones. Why? Here are just 5 things that wouldn’t have happened without the Street Feast.

1. Many people in the neighbourhood still wouldn’t know each other

It didn’t take much to bring people together for the Street Feast. I just knocked on every door, told people about the idea and in the end more than 50 people turned up. They brought bowls of apples, cakes and anything they could find in the fridge or the back garden, we had a massive amount of food! 50 people who hadn’t talked to each other before, just had a picnic together and now know each others’ names.

We all exchanged numbers with older neighbours and it just took 12 hours until our phone rang and an older lady called my husband for the recipe for his brown bread! Suffice to say he brought one down to her that very afternoon. These kinds of friendly gestures happen more often now and people stop in the street for a chat instead of walking by with a friendly but short “Hello”.

2. Some older people in the Street would still be left alone

We have a lot of elderly people living in our area, and as many of them don’t get a visitor from one week to the next we decided with the Street Feast we’d help them come out and meet the new members of their community. They came and they told us all about their lives.

Now I know for example that there is one man living a few doors away, who gets cancer treatment and doesn’t have any home care. I was very shocked to think that someone would be going through such a difficult time alone. He now gives me a call if he needs anything and even a simple thing like collecting the evening paper for one day makes such a difference for him.

Another older woman told us she was often afraid at night because of the noise coming from groups meeting late at night, drinking near where her backgarden is. She can now just give us a call when she feels this way and we can help.

3. Children in the area wouldn’t play with each other

It was not until our neighbours came together along with our children that we realised just how many kids there are on our street. The traffic in our street doesn’t allow our kids to play in the street where they can meet each other. Many of us have large back gardens and from time to time you would hear the sound of children playing by themselves. Since the Street Feast, the mums in the area know each other and we started to organise play dates in which the children on our street can play together in a safe way.

4. A good friend of mine wouldn’t bring together her neighbours this summer

We’ve made a start; now more people in the area are jumping on board. I sent in an editorial and some photos to our local news website on the day after the Feast to raise awareness and I’ve already heard back from people who loved it and will put together similar events next year. One of my friends will do a Feast in the late summer. It’s really taking off now here in Drogheda.

5. We wouldn’t have realised how important community is

I come from the country originally, and have very fond memories of the community I lived in while growing up. By creating this event we realised just how important it is to create the same sense of community for our children. When children grow up understanding their community and the people they share it with, they naturally learn to respect it more.

There are also lots of great ideas out there that can be taken up and led by the community. I’m very inspired by foodcloud, which was started at Trinity College where I studied. Another idea I really love comes from Detroit, it’s called SOUP, microfunding dinners that bring neighbours together to support local projects around art, urban agriculture, education, social entrepreneurship etc.