Something exciting is cooking in East Oxford.

St Mary & St John CE Primary School’s own recipe book, The Meadow Lane Cookbook, celebrates social diversity and the power of food in nurturing community cohesion.

By Ilaria Parodi

St Mary & St John School’s old playground was brimming with people that afternoon in June last year. The Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) was running the usual Friday tea stall and I was busy helping out. Food donations had been plenty and, before my very eyes, a feast of home-made culinary delights as diverse as the families making up the East Oxford community was laid out.

Only when the hustle and bustle of tea-stand selling started to wind down I was able to glance around our school grounds and notice the number of parents engaged in conversation, many proudly discussing their own country dishes. Never before had I had truly understood the power of food in bringing people closer and strengthening community ties.

It was the desire to celebrate the act of ‘breaking bread’ together that brought The Meadow Lane Cookbook to life. It took myself and a group of like-minded parents from St Mary & St John CE Primary School almost nine months to produce; a huge amount of work and commitment went into it, alongside a determination to see the project through.

It wasn’t all plain sailing; a few hurdles were hit upon the way and we even considered downing tools for good last August when getting the funds to support the book appeared to be impossible.

Yet, when all seemed lost, out of the blue came a providential intervention; Florence Fowler and Tony Abarno, wonderful friends and restaurateurs extraordinaire, the owners of East Oxford’s first-class Magdalen Arms, heard about the project and came to our rescue offering to cover all the book production costs. We felt as if we had struck the jackpot, and when Florence handed over her cheque, I pinched myself multiple times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming! With funds in place, The Meadow Lane Cookbook started to take shape; a designer was contracted and so was a printer, and a whopping number of proofs began to appear in various corners of my home, often peeking out from unexpected places, under a sofa or at the bottom of the post pile. Yet, amidst all the anarchy and daily juggling, things were progressing fast.

We are hugely indebted to Florence and Tony for their help and generosity in helping turn a vision into an exciting reality, and without their help, all the tireless work of the cookbook team would have been in vain.

The cookbook team stuck together through thick and thin, and also put their professional skills to use; art workshops were run with the school children, recipes were styled and edited, a mammoth amount of illustrations scanned in a single (yet extremely long) night, page proofs scrutinised to the nines, while at the same time the cookbook website was taking shape.

This amazing adventure is now nearing its end. The Meadow Lane Cookbook is now printed and ready for its launch at The Magdalen Arms on Thursday 3rd March, 5-6pm. A gorgeous collection of 41 family recipes enthusiastically donated by SSMJ parents and illustrated by the children, the book features dishes as varied as the individuals making up our unique neighbourhood.

Apart from being a celebration of diversity as well as community cohesion, this book also has the key purpose of helping to raise funds for St Mary & St John Primary School, absolutely crucial during this time of school budget cuts.

* The Meadow Lane Cookbook, Recipes from St Mary & St John CE Primary School is priced at £5.99. meadowlanecookbook.weebly.com to find out more.