A new community project providing free meals is launching in Bethnal Green this month, with a week of events starting on Tuesday June 12.

The meals will be put on at Mansford Street Unitarian Chapel, where there are also plans to open a food bank later on in the month, under the title ‘Simplegifts’.

The opening celebrations, to be held on Tuedsday June 19 from 3.30pm, will include a performance from guitarist James Bryan, who recently accompanied Engelbert Humperdinck at Eurovision 2012.

Organisers hope that the project can help promote community spirit, and plan to host further street parties and other events with ‘Kneesup’, another community project in East London.

Manager of the Unitarian Centre for Social Action Rob Gregson, said: “The whole project really started when a group of us, annoyed at ourselves for simply wringing our hands following the riots of last summer, decided it was time we stopped talking and started doing something constructive.”