Photo opportunity: Wednesday 29 March 2006, 10.30-4pm, ‘Culture Kitchen’ feast for food-growing network, Brady Arts & Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury St, Whitechapel, London E1

A new briefing on growing food in groups is to be launched at a gathering of members of WEN's network of organic food growers on 29 March.

Food growing for Groups will be unveiled at Culture Kitchen, a celebration for food growing groups based in Tower Hamlets, at Brady Arts & Community Centre in Whitechapel, East London. Members of ethnic-minority growing groups including Jagonari Women’s Centre, Wapping Women’s Centre, and the Coriander Club at Spitalfields City Farm are expected to attend as well as interested and new growers. The heritage seed library from 'Garden Organic' will also be there to share seed saving tips and offer FREE seeds.

While members of the Coriander Club chop and prepare a delicious lunch, WEN will be offering groups support with the development of their projects and there will be informal workshops on composting, seed saving and container growing. Lutfun Hussain from Spitalfields City Farm said, “It will be great to meet other growers and share ideas. I’m also looking forward to showing people the spinach, mustard, coriander and garlic that we are growing at the farm.”

The day will end with an inspirational visit to the Coriander Club’s garden.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Clare Joy Food Project Co-ordinator 020 7481 9004, Fax: 020 7481 9144
e-mail: food@wen.org.uk

Notes to editors:
1. Photographers and reporters are welcome to attend. The best photo opportunities will probably be between 12.45-1.15pm when food will be served and 2.30-3.30 when we will visit nearby Spitalfields City Farm where spinach, mustard and garlic are sprouting.

2. Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) is a national charity and membership organisation which campaigns on environmental and health issues from a women’s perspective. It educates, informs and empowers women and men who care about the environment.

3. The ‘Taste of a Better Future’ network was set up six years ago to help ethnic minority women’s groups develop organic food growing skills. It recognises that such groups have little access to affordable organic food, particularly traditional fruit and vegetable varieties, or to gardens of their own. Over the last six years, the 50+ groups in the Network have brought new life to some of the most unlikely spaces on housing estates and disused inner city plots. As well as nutritious food, they have enjoyed making new friends, sharing skills and bolstering their communities. The current project, ‘Cultivating the Future’, offers support and training to urban women’s growing groups.

4. Cultivating the Future is supported by Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Lloyds TSB Foundation, Olive Tree Trust and Sheepdrove Trust.

5. Food growing for groups, a four page briefing, will be available at the event and to download (458k pdf).