Every Friday evening, the floodlights switch on at Castlebrae football pitch and young people aged nine and above gather for Friday Night Lights — a weekly community football session in Niddrie and Craigmillar that offers a safe space to play sport, make friends, and connect with their community. While the football takes place every week, Edinburgh Food Social joins the programme once a month, bringing fresh, free food cooked on-site for everyone taking part. Not only do the kids get stuck into eating the food we bring, they also love getting involved in the making and serving, and they learn loads about cooking, new ingredients and working in hospitality!
Sometimes we take our food truck, other times, we’re balancing pots of chilli on our cargo bike or towing our trusty pizza oven behind us. However we get there, our aim is always the same: to share good food and create opportunities for people to gather, eat together, talk and get involved. We’ve learned over time that interactive food is always a winner. The kids stay longer, ask more questions and are far more likely to experiment with new flavours and ingredients. This month’s menu was a build-your-own pulled lamb flatbread, cooked fresh in our Ooni pizza oven. Young people piled theirs high with crunchy salads, garlic yoghurt, and veggie toppings before settling down to eat between games.
Giving young people the chance to build their own meal, ask questions, help serve, and get curious about what’s happening around the food setup creates a completely different experience from simply handing out food. Many of the young people who attend regularly now come straight over to see what’s on the menu, and some ask if they can help prepare ingredients or serve food throughout the evening. One young person who first started helping out at Friday Night Lights has since gone on to sign up for our Good Food Youth Club this summer, taking their interest in food even further.
As Police Scotland explains:
“Although football is the hook, it provides an opportunity for enhanced community engagement, leading to key conversations aiming to assist the young people work towards more positive destinations.”
They also highlighted the importance of food within the programme:
“A key aspect of this activity is the provision of food, and this has proved invaluable in enhancing the interest in the programme, and assisting young people, many of who are from extreme poverty, to have access to suitable, healthy food provision.”
For us, that’s exactly what community food should look like: not charity handed across a table, but good food cooked fresh, shared together, and woven naturally into community life.
That’s why we’re now opening some of these sessions up to the wider community. While the programme remains focused on supporting young people, we know there are plenty of local residents who could benefit from getting outside, sharing a hot meal, and connecting with others. We also believe the young people involved will benefit from spending time with people of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences. Strong communities are built through these everyday interactions.
The wider Friday Night Lights project is funded through the Cashback for Communities fund, which reinvests money seized through the proceeds of crime into programmes supporting young people across Scotland. We’re proud to be turning that investment into hot meals, positive experiences, and opportunities for connection.
On Friday nights, young people in Craigmillar and Niddrie know there will be something welcoming waiting for them as they turn up to play sports and have a laugh with their friends in a safe place. Once a month, they know they will be fed a deliciously healthy hot meal. As Friday Night Lights continues to grow, we’re looking forward to many more evenings spent under the floodlights, sharing good food with an incredible group of (hilarious!) young people and community partners.
Want to support work like this?
From youth clubs and community meals to cookery classes and food education projects, we work in Craigmillar and Niddrie to make good food accessible, enjoyable, and empowering. Find out more about our volunteer opportunities, board vacancies and other ways to get involved.
