YUMI! A tasty celebration of York’s diversity

York is a more multicultural city than many realise, and this weekend a festival will celebrate the fact with food and fun, says Chris Barrett

York Unifying and Multicultural Initiative – it’s a name that doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, which is why participants usually just say YUMI!

But the name does capture well what YUMI is all about – bringing together people from diverse cultural backgrounds to share and develop skills in work and play.

There are people from more than 90 ethnic backgrounds speaking 78 languages living in York according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and this number is steadily rising.

These people contribute significantly to York’s resources, economy, culture, life and energy. YUMI’s Community Street Festival 2013, which will be held in Parliament Street on Saturday, August 31, highlights the contribution and talents of these people.

The centre-piece of the event will be a Show Garden featuring plants grown in the YUMI allotment at Fulford Cross and giving people the opportunity to learn more about how the garden produces food for the YUMI cooks.

Nine YUMI cooks will be selling food from around the world and recipe cards featuring food they have cooked for the festival will be sold on the day so that visitors can show support for YUMI and take home a useful memento of the day.

The festival will also feature a range of children’s activities closely integrated with the show garden as a way to increase understanding of the foods YUMI grows.

A Garden Trail will feature a quiz encouraging children to find answers by observing things on display in the show garden. A biscuit decorating activity will feature chocolate flavoured with plant extracts from plants grown in the garden, and rangoli – Indian pattern making – will use petals from plants grown in the garden.

Coming into the city centre represents a major outreach by YUMI to encourage new people to become involved in its activities and benefit from what YUMI uniquely offers.

The event promises to be a lot of fun and will hopefully lift the city by celebrating the often overlooked diversity of the city’s population.
 

• The YUMI Community Street Festival runs from 10.30am to 4.30pm on Saturday, August 31. More details here
• Find out more about YUMI on its website