Andrew Smith runs first event for Christian and Muslim young people in Birmingham as part of Scripture Union. ‘Faith and Young People’ is a huge success.

Buoyed by its success, Andrew runs regular ‘Youth Encounter’ events across the city, and develops a set of Guidelines for Dialogue which underpin the approach.

Andrew consults Christian supporters in Birmingham about setting up a charity which would be an Associate Trust of Scripture Union. The Feast is formed.

The Feast is granted charitable status, and begins fundraising.

Natasha Griffith commences as The Feast’s first employee, as a youth worker based in Sparkhill and working in Moseley and Golden Hillock Schools. Jenni Creasy joins as a Scripture Union gap year volunteer.

The Feast is based at The Springfield Centre.

Tim Fawssett joins as project manager, which later becomes the CEO role. Jenni joins the staff team at the end of her gap year.

Youth Encounter events increase from 4 to 25 a year.

The Feast begins work with the Broadway School in Aston.

Rachel Pattinson joins to provide administrative support, along with an increase in volunteers.

The Feast joins the Near Neighbours programme.

Nahim Khan becomes the first Muslim youth worker. Immy Kaur and Steve Hirst interned for a year with The Feast as a part of their Fellowship with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

The Feast is awarded the ‘Most Innovative Youth Work’ Award at the Christian Youth Work Awards.

New Local Leadership Groups are formed in Bradford and Keighley and Tower Hamlets.

The Feast office moves to the Faithful Neighbourhoods Centre, and says goodbye to Rachel. Chris Reynolds joins the team in Bradford and Keighley and Hannah Dickson joins the Birmingham office to do administration and finance.

The Feast secures funding from the Cabinet Office as part of the Youth Social Action Fund.

Steve Stanier joins the team in Birmingham and Dumaeza Nhlapo joins part-time in Tower Hamlets.

The Feast commences in Park View Academy, and now operates in four Birmingham Schools.

With the support of Near Neighbours, The Feast establishes a Local Leadership Group in Luton.

The Feast Lebanon (now called Khebz w Meleh) is established as a partnership between World Vision, the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies and YFC, and commences running youth encounters for Sunni and Shia Muslims, and Maronite and Evangelical Christian young people.

This year saw a lot of staff changes.

Tanya Bownds joins as Field Development Manager. Chris moves on from Bradford and Keighley, and is replaced by Mark Elliott. Nanzip Lannap joins in Luton as a contacted youth worker. Jenni departs in the Summer, and at the end of the year we said goodbye to Tanya, Hannah and Nahim steps back to a part-time Associate role.

The Feast in Birmingham is awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Volunteer Service, equivalent to the MBE for charities.

The Feast International Committee forms to support the interests for work outside the UK.

The first Faith and Friends Conference was held in Birmingham.

The Feast took a group of young people to Ghana. Project Ghana was a life-changing trip for many.

From humble beginnings this year we connected with around 2,500 young people nationally through schools, faith groups and partner organisations.

Jill Appleton becomes the Birmingham Development Manager and Schools Consultant and Sandra Langston joins as our National Administrator.

The Feast launched its snazzy new website and across the year connected with over 3,800 young people. The Feast ran 56 Youth Encounters and trained 800 adults in how to use the Guidelines for Dialogue.

After 8 years of leading The Feast, Tim Fawssett returned to Australia with his family to apply the principles of The Feast in a very different context and Carolyn Merry takes up the role of CEO in November.

Growth of The Feast team:

Mark Hutchings, Naweed Hussain and Ulrike Hunt join as Development Managers in Tower Hamlets, Bradford and Luton (respectively). Also joining the team was Rukshana Aktar as a Schools Worker in Tower Hamlets, Adam Larkin as a Youth Worker in Birmingham and the Methodist Church shared two of their Youth Workers with The Feast for 2 years - Ermine Mitchell in Birmingham and Laura Tunnacliffe in Bradford. 

The year started with a wonderful International Workshop in Lebanon that inspired similar work in different countries of Africa and the Middle East.

In September The Feast launched its new 5-year strategy, “In Faith, We Dare to Imagine.”  The strategy sets out an ambitious plan to bring together more young people of different faiths and cultures than ever before from diverse and divided communities across the UK and model how honest and respectful dialogue and faith can be a positive force for change. Its' name recognises that we live in a time that needs hope of a transformed world. With global trends towards austerity, populism, rising hate crime, terrorism, community isolation and increased fears and stereotyping of people different from ourselves becoming the dominant narrative in traditional and social media, The Feast asks young people to dare to imagine a transformed world and become the Gamechangers for such a world.

The Feast celebrates its 10th Anniversary year with a series of special events across the year - starting at Lambeth Palace and ending in the House of Lords. The Feast translates its Guidelines for Dialogue into 12 different languages.

The Game Changers 1-year Leadership Programme is successfully piloted in Birmingham, Luton and Tower Hamlets. An International Conference is held in Chicago bringing new connections, opportunities and friendships.

We were very excited to launch The Feast's Transforming Dialogue Hub which will enable us to deliver training to youth workers, teachers, chaplains, students, faith leaders and many more, across the UK and internationally. The pandemic did not stop this happening as we took all our work online. The Birmingham team delivered all its encounters online - doing everything from Taskmaster to baking - and had new young people join us during this time. 

Just before Covid hit, we appointed a new Youth and Schools worker to the Birmingham Team, Rachel Butler.

Our online presence wasn't restricted to Birmingham - we ran an international conference with young people in Australia too.

The Covid pandemic put a halt to most of our schools work and most staff were furloughed for a few months.

We said goodbye to Carolyn Merry, our CEO, who had carried The Feast so well during the pandemic. The senior leadership team took on the management of The Feast, supported by the trustees

The pandemic meant that we continued to deliver many events online. This was the year that saw all the regions working together - online meant no travelling but meant we were able to be creative and work as one team. Online events included a meeting with young people from 5 different faiths with the Archbishop of Canterbury, a much needed wellness programme and a major project with Faith and Belief Forum, bringing community faith groups together. 

We launched the Merchant Taylors' Foundation Hub in Tower Hamlets as a result of a five year grant to support The Feast work in Tower Hamlets. Rukshana Aktar was appointed as the Hub Manager.

Jill Appleton was appointed as the National Development Manager, leading the SLT in the management of The Feast.

The Feast team in Luton grew with the appointment of Kristina Druce, as part time youth worker.

Schools work started again in each region and this year saw holiday programmes in all three regions. 

The National Office moved again, this time to smaller premises at Christ Church in Sparkbrook, Birmingham. 

We celebrated being able to finally meet face-to-face with our first National Gathering for three years. This was a great celebration of the work of The Feast. We also held our first residential - again the first after three years, with young people, staff and volunteers from each of the three regions.

A new series of International Gatherings started. We enjoyed two visits from Reem el Khoury, who works for our sister organisation, Khebz w Meleh, in Lebanon.

Jill Appleton became The Feast's National Director.

We launched our new strategy - Living Well with Difference. 

The Transforming Dialogue Hub saw an increase in the number of people being trained in the Guidelines for Dialogue and helping young people live well with difference.

The Birmingham team secured five years of funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to run our Encounter Programme.

The Feast was invited to an interfaith discussion at Buckingham Palace in December, hosted by King Charles. He made a point of seeking out Rukshana, our Tower Hamlets Hub manager, and asked all about The Feast. A great end to the year!

2024 marks our 15th Anniversary. Look out for lots of celebration and fundraising events this year.

The Birmingham team is renamed the West Midlands Team to reflect the larger area in which they now work. 

Asif Masud is appointed as the West Midlands Development Manager.