When the residents of Kennington stage a community event, almost everyone gets involved, including the children from the local primary school — because it’s that kind of village. For the past 40 years Kennington has staged a summer fete to raise funds for a chosen overseas project.

Indeed Kennington claims to be the only village in the UK to have consistently raised funds for a chosen overseas charity this way. The charity this year is Practical Action, an intermediate technology charity that brings some modern amenities like clean water and sanitation to high Andean villages.

Local resident Sylvia Vetta, one of the chair triumvirates, explained that the idea is to be good neighbours in Kennington, and good neighbours in the global village.

One of the most popular stalls this year was the home-made cake stand, which was groaning with a glorious mix of cakes, made by Kennington residents. The afternoon teas proved popular, too, as the theme for this year’s fete was Paddington Bear’s tea party. Naturally, the Paddington Bear theme ensured that there were loads of tasty marmalade cakes served with the teas, all of which were home cooked.

Many of the children who helped with the fete this year were pupils from St Swithun’s Primary School, which encourages parents to take an active part in the life of the school and children to take an interest in community activities such as the fete. The pupils’ contribution to the fete this year came in the form of a delightful and very colourful little cookery book which parents and teachers helped them create.

Headteacher Jill Evans says that there has been lots of publicity recently about the lack of home cooking that our children experience. “This book shows that children, parents and staff do have a repertoire of favourite meals that they enjoy cooking.”

Lorna Hind, one of the mothers who also helped make this book happen, explained that this was a project which offered everyone a chance to become involved.

She said: “Children, headteacher, teachers, parents and even the dinner ladies helped make it happen. Possibly more than two-thirds of the school community are actually represented in the book, which is not just illustrated with coloured pictures drawn by the children, but photos of the children cooking, too.”

There are no celebrity chefs in this book and no posh dinner party recipes that call for pages of expensive ingredients and take ages to cook either. Instead, there are real recipes, eaten and enjoyed by real people.

As Lorna said, people just submitted their favourite family recipe. “It doesn’t contain anything too complicated or expensive, just straightforward recipes which the children enjoy cooking and eating.

“Harmony and Joy Scott-Russell, for example, wrote a recipe for omelettes using fresh eggs laid by their granddad’s chickens and Alice Page wrote a recipe for bramble jam from fruit gathered locally.”

Other recipes include a delicious plum and apple crumble by Grace and Megan Taylor. Amber Williamson has written up a cowboy casserole made with spicy sausages, bacon and beans, which she helps her mother cook often as it is one of her favourites. Anna Pitt-Francis has written up a delicious lemon drizzle cake, and Natasha and Joshua Morris have added a delightful recipe for gingerbread men.

Other recipes include chicken macaroni soup, by Joshua and Matty Severn, which they say is a wonderful way of getting all the goodness from a tasty chicken and use up any leftover chicken after a roast dinner. There is also an inspired recipe for strawberry, nut and spinach salad by Benjamin Faulkner, which calls for fresh strawberries that are sliced and added to a bowl of raw spinach leaves, chopped onion and toasted almond slivered and dressed with a spicy vinaigrette sauce.

The money needed to print 500 copies of the book was raised thanks mainly to the generosity of local companies and organisations that also see themselves as part of this remarkably lively community.

It is hoped that the funds from the sale of the St Swithun’s School Cookbook will help to convert a classroom into a food technology and science room, which can be used by the children and for evening classes. The cost has been estimated at between £10,000 and £12,000. So far, the book has helped raised £1,800. The book is available at the village Post Office, the school, and the Kennington Co-op.

The fete is just one of many village events that are being held throughout Oxfordshire this summer. These fetes are the result of months of planning and hours spent cooking home-made produce that can be sold to raise funds. They all deserve our support.