Do you want to grow your own herbs, salads, fruits and vegetables?

Women in Tower Hamlets are invited to join WEN’s exciting ‘Spice It Up‘ programme taking place from Monday 23rd January 2012, 9.30-3pm, at St Hilda’s East Community Centre, near Shoreditch High Street Station, east London. Further courses will be taking place from March. Participants will receive:

• Four days free training (22 hours) in organic food growing skills, including an induction to Women’s Environmental Network, and visits to local gardening projects.
• A certificate of achievement, and a reference for future employers or training schemes once you have completed the programme.
• An opportunity to volunteer at local community gardens to put your new skills into practice.
• A free food growing starter kit, including hand trowel and hand fork, seeds, gardening gloves, potting compost, and a container/window  box.
• Free lunch at the training sessions, and travel expenses for attendance of the training sessions/placements.
• Childcare can be provided or reasonable expenses reimbursed if arranged before hand. Call 020 7481 9004 or email: Kate Metcalf at spiceitup@wen.org.uk

Training sessions will take place on the following dates:

Monday 23rd January
Tuesday 24th January
Wednesday 25th January
Thursday 26th January

You don’t need to have experience of food growing to join the programme:the only requirements are an interest in food growing, and regular attendance at the training sessions and your volunteer placements.

Participants must contact WEN before hand to arrange booking as spaces are limited: Call the Local Food Team on 020 7481 9004 or complete the booking form and email to spiceitup@wen.org.uk.  booking form (doc)

‘Fuel poverty is affecting me. I’m a single mum of a 7 month-old daughter. My monthly payments have increased from £30 to £54 and I’m sure they will be increased further as I need the heating on more often than I used to. I am going to apply to a local charity for a grant to help with fuel payments. The other big issue for me is food costs, especially since I started weaning my baby. When my maternity pay ends soon, I have no idea how I am going to survive financially, no matter how careful I am with my budget.’

‘Fuel price increases are affecting me directly, in terms of home heating and electricity use, but also indirectly through the rising costs of other utilities and services, food and transport.We need wider establishment of the facts, through popular media, and through joining forces with other lobby groups who have articulated on the same or related issues. Ensuring the voices of those who are affected the greatest are heard clearly and inclusively.’

‘All homes need good insulation which should be provided by government!’

‘My partner and I certainly have noticed the rise in costs but we are fortunate to both be in full time work and have no childcare responsibilites so will not have to go without heating or anything like that. I know my Mum has been concerned about her rising bills recently too. I do feel it must be an issue for people who are supporting families, especially if they are on their own, or for women living alone, particularly those who cannot work, cannot find work or are retired.’

Keep your comments coming, either through the comments box below or by emailing foodnetwork@wen.org.uk. Fuel poverty is both an environmental and social justice issue, with the majority of those affected by it (spending 10 per cent of household income on fuel) being older single households or lone parent households – which tend to be female-headed. WEN wants to know:

Are increasing fuel bills beginning to affect you and other women you know?What measures do you think would help?

Would you be in favour of WEN running a campaign on this issue?

Would it even be something you or your local group could get behind?

WEN’s Gender and Climate Change Report published last year already touched on this issue, making the link between fuel poverty, increasing fuel prices and climate change. More and better fuel-efficiency measures will help avoid catastrophic climate change as well as protect the health of a growing proportion of the British public. Let us know what you think by adding your comments below or by emailing foodnetwork@wen.org.uk

WEN is currently scoping its new campaign strategy and we really want your input. Could you spare three minutes of your time to respond to the email address below?  One of the key issues we believe to be affecting women now is the issue of fuel poverty. This is both an environmental and social justice issue, with the majority of those affected by fuel poverty (spending 10 per cent of household income on fuel) being older single households or lone parent households – which tend to be female-headed. WEN wants to know:

Are increasing fuel bills beginning to affect you and other women you know?

What measures do you think would help?

Would you be in favour of WEN running a campaign on this issue?

Would it even be something you or your local group could get behind?

WEN’s Gender and Climate Change Report published last year already touched on this issue, making the link between fuel poverty, increasing fuel prices and climate change. More and better fuel-efficiency measures will help avoid catastrophic climate change as well as protect the health of a growing proportion of the British public. Let us know what you think by emailing foodnetwork@wen.org.uk

‘This is Rubbish’ Forum & Feast event to be held on 5th November.

Working in collaboration with The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales, ‘This is Rubbish’ are hosting a solutions led symposium on food waste.  WEN’s work overlaps considerably, and there are many links in what we both set out to achieve through community projects and a love of food.   Working on the ground with communities to promote how important food is and how much goes to waste by holding feasts across the UK, this promises to be a very worthwhile event.

The event will take an in-depth look at the causes and solutions of food waste with a range of experts including Dr Andy Rees, Head of Waste Strategy, Welsh Assembly Government; Dr Adrian Morley, Research Associate at Business Relationship, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS); Emma Marsh, Head of WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign; and Professor Martin Caraher, Reader in food and health policy at the dept of Health Management and Food Policy at City University.

The forum is an engaging program of panel discussions, workshops, complimentary lunch, film screenings and exhibition (9.30am – 6.30pm), and will be followed by an exceptional evening Feast: a three course sumptuous supper made from food that would otherwise be wasted, served at a candle lit table and accompanied by troubadour folk band Bard (7.00 – 10pm). 

Booking: Places are limited and advance booking is necessary. Book tickets and access full information via www.thisisrubbish.org.uk

To help address this, the UK Food Group will hold a strategy day to look specifically at food sovereignty in more detail, and as part of this will run a seminar specifically on gender. It seems likely that small scale women producers in the UK face some of the same problems as those in the developing world – exclusion from decision making, lack of access to (quality) land and lack of security of tenure. Ancedotally, WEN’s work with urban women growers has shown this, but more needs to be done to pull together existing research on the issues facing women producers in the developing world, and also those in the UK.

Where: St Hilda’s East Community Centre 18 Club Row, E2 7EY

When: October 13, 10.30am – 3.00pm

 Refreshments will be provided.  The day will include hands-on workshops based on:

• growing non-UK and exotic vegetables
• planning new food growing spaces
• stimulating discussions about who controls the food supply in the UK, and do communities and individuals have enough of a say, or any say at all?

 As well as:

• The launch of a new seed exchange
• St Hilda’s East co-op will launch, and local growers are welcome to bring locally grown food to sell
• A Compost clinic will be on hand to answer all your composting questions – it’s really not that difficult with a few pointers from the experts

Click here for details (pdf)

The sponsored fire walk will raise much needed money for our Local Food and Climate Change projects, working in one of London’s most deprived boroughs. On 7 December, near Brick Lane, east London, we will ask WEN supporters to once again pull off their socks and walk barefoot across 20 ft coals burning at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a fantastic way for you to help WEN raise money whilst doing something unique and challenging!

All those taking part will receive training from a specialist ‘firewalking’ trainer in a tailor-made ‘Learn or Burn’ seminar. The training takes place in the two hours running up to the walk itself and is a combination of the practical side of walking over hot coals without getting hurt, and the inspirational side of conquering your fears of taking that first step out!

We need a minimum of 30 walkers to raise £150 each, so please rally friends and family to take part.  We’re also raising the stakes: the first person to raise £500 gets a gift pack from Neal’s Yard, the first person to raise £1000 gets a large crate of something organic. Whoever raises the most for WEN gets a unique and fabulous mystery prize. If you’d like to take part, please email fundraising@wen.org.uk

All proceeds will go towards  WEN’s Local Food and Climate Change projects, and will help to support women’s food-growing projects in some of London’s most economically deprived areas.

Image via Wikipedia

‘Poverty usually has a women’s face’ said Spelman, in response to a question put by WEN yesterday in London, as she agreed that women will be hardest hit by climate change.

WEN was taking part in a discussion on the environment as part of a Charities Parliament event ‘Our Place, Our Planet, Our Responsibility’. Environment Secretary of State Caroline Spelman, Christian Aid representatives and the chair of conservation organisation A Rocha were present as well as members of the public and individuals from faith-based organisations. The discussion focused on the role charities and ordinary people can play in making our communities more environmentally friendly, but delegates were quick to remind the Secretary that cuts don’t help local action, and that more legislation to pretect the environment is needed.

WEN reminded the Secretary that women are the ones most affected by climate change, and asked how small organisations can compete with larger ones in terms of influencing government. Spelman’s answer: to go local. According to Spelman, the government’s localisation agenda will make it easier for communities to influence decision-making in their area, describing it as a ‘power shift’.

Meanwhile Christian Aid said that they encourage many of their members to become ’special lobbyists’ whereby Christian Aid assists them to pressurise their local MPs through visiting them a few times a year. According to Climate Change Campaigns Manager Laura Trevelyan, these supporters are Christian Aid’s ‘proudest resource’ and create a huge pressure from the grassroots.

A hand-written letter and face-to-face contact gets the most response from MPs, said Spelman, as opposed to generic email petitions.

Would any of our members like to become ’special lobbyists’ for WEN? If so send an email to foodnetwork@wen.org.uk and put ’special lobbyist’ in the subject header.

The discussion is part of a Charities Parliament event ‘Our Place, Our Planet, Our Responsibility’ and focuses on the role charities can play in making our communities more environmentally friendly. The context is the international Clean Up the World Weekend http://www.cleanuptheworld.org.

Let us know what you think we should ask the Environment Secretary, and whether you would like to attend, by emailing foodnetwork@wen.org.uk and putting ‘Charities parliament’ in the subject header.

WEN is running a short workshop involving video cameras on 8 September, at the 20 Club Row office, around the subject of food and food-growing. We want to chat about the basics of food growing but also explore the deeper feelings around food – how food fits into your childhood memories, your culture, and whether your diet is any different from what your parents ate. It will be a chance to celebrate the role of food in our lives, and also share any problems we might experience in growing it or buying it. We’d like to make a short film of the event and give you the chance to film each other in conversation.  Participants will get training in using basic video camera equipment. Takes place between 11-1 pm. Places are limited so email foodnetwork@wen.org.uk