Another busy month for GFL despite the summer holidays. We’ve been working on the Food Justice Action Plan, Worrying About Money? leaflet, food waste, cost of living, list of growing projects, food projects supporting each other, local foraging and more. If you’d like something included in future editions please get content to me (helen@lewishamlocal.com) by 13th of the month.
You can also read the newsletter here: https://mailchi.mp/c79ffbe4c55d/good-food-lewisham-newsletter-september-2022
GENERAL UPDATES FROM GFL NETWORK
There’s a lot of information in this newsletter. Key things:
Foraging small grant - deadline 28th September
Community fridge grant – deadline 30th October
Gardening grant – rolling deadline, apply any time
GFL Network meeting on food and the cost of living crisis – 18th October
Voluntary and Community Sector conference - 5th October
Food support – list of projects
Finance advice - Worrying About Money leaflet
Food projects in need of volunteers
Energy advice – SELCE referral form
Nominate a local good food business to be featured – email helen@lewishamlocal.com
FOOD JUSTICE
The council and others have been working on the draft of the Food Justice Action Plan. The next session on this will be in early October to look at the draft. We’ll let you know when and how to join nearer the time. The next GFL public network meeting will happen on Tuesday 18th October 4-7pm. Please sign up via Eventbrite here. We’ll be focusing on food justice again, continuing discussions from the last meeting, but we’ll give everyone an overview so it’s no problem if you’re new to all this and this is your first meeting. Legendary Community Club has been doing some great work over the summer holidays for Lewisham’s Holiday Activity Programme. They made a total of 9,907 meals for the 5 weeks over the summer. With the help of Tai from Tai Talks Nutrition they created a cultural nutritional balanced menu. They provided paid opportunities for 14 young people, 4 people who use their foodbank services/volunteer with us, as well as other posts. See: https://youtu.be/wdEeCQ7QSqw
FOOD GROWING
We’ve just come to the end of Capital Growth’s Urban Harvest week where loads of growing events happened. A few Lewisham Local people visited the One Tree Hill Allotment Society open day last Sunday and had a tour of the AFRIL allotment and found out some history of the area – it was an inspiring day. St Mary's Therapeutic Garden, Grow Lewisham, CoCo Collective and others also had events. We also hosted Lewisham Local’s Monthly Breakfast Meeting to let people know about GFL.
We’ve just launched a small grants programme for local groups to put on foraging events in mid October to mark World Food Day on Sunday 16th October and London Challenge Poverty Week 17th – 23rd October. Deadline Wednesday 28thSeptember 9am. You can apply for up to £250. Please email helen@lewishamlocal.com if you have any questions.
Good Food Events Happening Soon
Health & Wellbeing Crofton Park Community Library, 375 Brockley Road, SE4 2AG
Six week course talking about healthy eating, herbs and spices, staying hydrated, sharing healthy tips. Pilot was on 12th September, but you can still join in. Pay what you can. Contact Anne McBride <annemcbride@talktalk.net> for dates and times as these are changeable and if you have any questions.
For now, the dates are:
Mon 3, 10, 17 October
Half term break - 24 Oct
Mon 31 Oct, Mon 14 Nov, Mon 28 Nov (fortnightly)
University of Brighton in Partnership with Adur and Worthing Food Partnership recently carried out research with people who were relying on community food support. The research was undertaken in order to find out more about people's experiences of relying on food support, with the aim of helping organisations and decision makers to better understand the issues people are facing, and enable organisations to make better informed decisions and deliver person-centred services.
On Friday 23rd Sept 2:00-4:15pm there’s an online session where you are invited to come and:
Hear the findings of the research and learning, to better inform practice
Reflect on your own organisations, and how you can begin to think about changes to the approach/practice/system/language to better support people in poverty
Look at what action is already taking place to tackle some of the issues
Better Food Systems conference 28th – 29th September both online and offline – in Stretford. Coming Together to Strengthen and Scale Agroecological Short Supply Chains.
St Peter’s Brockley pop up café Friday 30th September 12-2pm. This will be on the 4th Friday of the month going forward. Pay what you can. Contact Anne McBride <annemcbride@talktalk.net> if you have any questions. St Peter’s also have a food bank.
Lewisham Right to Food Rally Saturday 1st October. From Midday – 3pm – walking past food projects. Here’s the route on Google maps. Sign up with Eventbrite here.
Contact Anne Williams talktoanne2022@outlook.com
Saturday 15th October – Europe-wide Good Food, Good Farming days of action. In London the day before World Food Day - we’ll be joining the Landworkers’ Alliance and dozens of other UK food and farming organisations to march on Parliament Square in London demanding that our leaders take action to defend our food and farming systems. You can view the list of key demands here.
Sunday 16th October is the start of Great Get Togethers’ cook and share month. They have tonnes of useful resources to support.
Foraging Picks of the Month with Theresa
At the sensory garden at Forster Memorial Park, the sunflowers are currently at their best and there are herbs and spinach for salads. Oregano, tarragon, chard, kale and runner beans. Achillea millefolium grows around the edges. Nasturtiums to eat as salad - leaf and flower. You can make teas by immersing these in hot water: fennel seeds, sage, thyme and lemon verbena leaf. Yellow calendula/marigold flowers are suitable for salads and taste mild. Local food is always grown at the sensory garden in Forster Memorial Park, for the volunteers who meet on site weekly. They have an active Friends Group.
For more foraging tips contact Theresa Webb Kitchen Buddy at theresa@littlemisstree.com We hope to see you at some of the foraging events around Lewisham in October.
Local Green Businesses
It’s Sourdough September. Meet Ed from a local bakery. We’d love you to nominate a local good food business – have you had a good meal, coffee or bought a nice product or just think that a local business is doing things well in terms of good food, such as dealing with their food waste well. Please send in suggestions to helen@lewishamlocal.com and we’ll feature some local businesses in this newsletter.
We’re also developing a list of local good food caterers in Lewisham, do you have any recommendations? Please email simone@lewishamlocal.com
Sign up to the Lewisham Local card and get a discount at local independent businesses.
Requests
Please do update your information on our food project list and food project volunteer pages as we’ll be finalising the next updates of these soon. Post volunteer opportunities here. We’re starting to think about winter provision and warm spaces. Please let us know if you’re offering a warm space, even if it’s just a weekly coffee morning, as we’re starting to map these. Again, contact helen@lewishamlocal.com
Kids Kitchen, a great local project cooking healthy food with children, are recruiting for Session Leaders and other roles.
Resources, training, news, reports
Practical Organic Gardening Course at Sydenham Garden starting 6th October. To register interest, applicants must be referred via Lewisham Community Wellbeing. Please call 020 3228 0760 and ask for information. Contact Rachael at Sydenham Garden on: 07529 222 557 or rachael@sydenhamgarden.org.uk
Energy Advice – There's a lot about energy bills increasing in the news at the moment and it can be confusing and scary. There’s some official government advice. South East London Community Energy have been providing energy advice in Lewisham and South East London for over 8 years.
They have a quarterly energy advice info email designed for people working in the community to be kept informed and be able to signpost people. Sign up here.
SELCE provide one to one advice sessions for people on low incomes, with long term health conditions, older people and young families. Ask clients to call 020 45666764 to speak to an energy advisor or refer a client using this form.
Email michal@selce.org.uk if you’d like SELCE to deliver a workshop to your staff team or clients.
RMUK Community Radio - “First Love Community Radio…A vision from the streets". Celebrate some of the Lewisham voices that don’t often get heard talking about food, health, community, music and loads of other topics. Part of the Black History Month Celebrations and the Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022. Building on the legacy that started 30 years ago when it began broadcasting from a small business unit at the Brockley Business Centre.
For four weekends in October - 12 noon till 12 midnight Saturdays and Sundays from 1st to 28th. Tune in via Mixcloud.
Run by volunteers. Training is offered free to Lewisham residents. Register to volunteer here. For more information contact Carole Pyke: Firstlovetraining@gmail.com, Telephone: 07415845405
Award winning Unicorn Grocery coop have updated their ‘grow a grocery’ toolkit which provides all the information and steps you need to build your own ethical, local, sustainable grocery. They’ve written a blog about how the grocery came about and what the toolkit offers.
Meet leaders of local micro-organisations to discuss the challenges and opportunities for attaining good governance in Lewisham's VCS. Tuesday 27th September 10.30 -12.30. Sign up via Eventbrite. A great resource on where to get locally grown, planet friendly fruit and veg quickly from Better Food Traders has just had an update, with over 100 pickup points, shops and delivery areas added to their map since January.
Good Food News and Reports:
- Seed the City Events: 100-plus cities worldwide host Seed the City events - Natural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sector
- Call for action on cost of living crisis in Brighton: Food charities call for emergency action as cost-of-living crisis leaves thousands in Brighton and Hove in permanent food poverty – Brighton and Hove Food Partnership (bhfood.org.uk)
- Report explaining where Bristol’s food comes from: https://bristolgreencapital.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Who-feeds-Bristol-report.pdf
- Information about local food responses and other support available from Sustain:
Funding
Foraging Grant - As mentioned above, Lewisham Local have just launched a small grants programme for local groups to put on foraging events in mid October to mark World Food Day on Sunday 16th October and London Challenge Poverty Week 17th – 23rd October. Deadline Wednesday 28th September 9am. You can apply for up to £250. Please email helen@lewishamlocal.com if you have any questions.
Community Fridge Grant - The Co-Op's community Fridge Network partners Hubbub are open for applications for grant funding to set up a Community Fridge. Deadline 30th October. It's a great opportunity for relevant groups and causes to apply and supports Co Op's mission of fairer access to food. To apply please use this form.
Free Fundraising Support in Lewisham - Lewisham Local is host to one of four fundraisers who are here to help Lewisham groups. Find out more at the launch next week on Wednesday 21st 1.30 - 4.30 at The Albany. Please book via Eventbrite. Tickets are limited to one per organisation. Please select only one theme.
Gardening Grants - The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association (MPGA), a charity that preserves and improves gardens, neglected sites and green public open spaces in all 33 London Boroughs, is offering community organisations and schools in London the opportunity to apply for small gardening grants. Grants of up to £1,500 can be used for a variety of projects, including planting, equipment purchase, benches and churchyard refurbishments; etc. The application process is ongoing and there are no application deadlines. Apply here.
Other Events and Projects
Lewisham Local is helping to organise a Voluntary and Community Sector conference on 5th October, together with Age UK Lewisham and Southwark and Citizens Advice Lewisham. Please register on Eventbrite here. There’ll be a session on the cost of living crisis, as well as others to choose from.
Deptford X Arts Festival is 16th - 23rd September, with some climate and growing events, such as at John Evelyn Community Garden
Black History Month is October. There are loads of resources on this site, as well as listings of Lewisham events here.
Catford Arts Trail is over two weekends in October – 8th-9th and 15th-16th. Some community gardens are holding events as part of is, such as Wild Cat Wilderness and Forster Memorial Park and there’s often lots of nature-based art.
One of Lewisham Local’s current projects is Building People, Changing Minds, where we are finding adults with learning disabilities, mental ill health and people seeking sanctuary suitable voluntary work placements for four months. If you can offer a placement or want to refer people to placements, please contact josiah@lewishamlocal.com
Lewisham's Cost of Living Crisis Appeal
Lewisham Local's Cost of Living Crisis appeal will support food projects and energy advice this winter. We have a Local Giving page and a Crowdfunding page. The Crowdfunder features some great rewards for people who pledge to the campaign.
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