YUMI Celebrates! to give York’s international community centre stage

YUMI Celebrates!, the result of eight months’ preparation by volunteers, is intended to give centre stage to York’s international community.

Organisers say teachers, carpenters, students, scientists, business owners and others have discovered new skills and developed existing ones while working together on the event, to be staged in Parliament Street on Saturday, July 24, and Sunday, July 25.

“Those with a flair for cooking have formed the cooks’ group, which will prepare and sell exciting, exotic dishes from 14 different cultures to York residents and visitors,” said spokeswoman Hanna Dlociok.

“The YUMI cooks, the majority of whom have never cooked on such a large scale before, have all been trained in food hygiene and provided with mentoring to help them get ready for the event.

“Those individuals with an interest in the arts have created a programme of fun activities representing cultures and traditions from all around the globe.”

Organic vegetables and herbs from a community garden project would also be sold.

She said YUMI had started life in 2005 as a small, grassroots network, but had since grown to become a formally constituted organisation with more than 400 members.

It aimed to strengthen the sense of community involvement for people in black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in York and positively influence attitudes to difference and diversity by working with local people.

She said York was often regarded as a “white”, Christian monoculture but the ethnic community now stood at 11 per cent, representing 21,800 people living and working in the city, and there were now people from over 92 ethnic/national origins and 78 languages spoken, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Hannah said: “With such a large number of ethnic/national groups and languages spoken, the result is that in this small city, many from these BME groups can feel that they are the only person from that culture living here.”