Saturday 8 March saw an International Women's Day celebration of food bringing together members of WEN's Taste of a Better Future network and Wapping Women's Centre.

Themed around 'Women and Work', a delicious lunchtime feast was cooked up by the Wapping Women's Centre Business Enterprise Scheme who have recently set up a successful catering company. Speakers from across the community included Lutfun Hussain, Co-ordinator of the Coriander Club at Spitalfields City Farm, and Sufia Alam, Manager of Wapping Women's Centre and Chair of the Muslim Women's Collective in Tower Hamlets.

Workshops and stalls included WEN's popular fruity beauty session, demonstrating how to make cosmetics that are kind to your body and the planet from everyday kitchen ingredients, advice on seed saving with free seeds from the Heritage Seed Library, plant pot painting and an impressive photography exhibition by the Wapping Women's Centre Girls Group.

One of the highlights of the day was a tour of the Women's Centre's garden which has recently been redeveloped with funding from Tower Hamlets Council. "It demonstrates how quickly you can reap the rewards of your labour when growing your own food," said Caroline Fernandez of WEN. "Although the work was only completed at the end of last year, they are already harvesting chard and coriander with masses to look forward to later on in the year."

ENDS For further information please contact: Caroline Fernandez, Women's Environmental Network M: 0787 6777327 T: 020 7481 9004 email: carofood@gmail.com

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Wapping Women's Centre is a women only space. Sufia Alam Centre Manager Tel 020 7702 0036

2. Women's Environmental Network is the only organisation in the UK working consistently for women and the environment. www.wen.org.uk

3. The Taste of a Better Future network was set up seven 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 seven years, the 40+ 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, Urban Harvest, offers support and training to urban women's growing groups.

4. Urban Harvest is supported by, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tedworth Trust, Olive Tree Trust, Awards for All and Department for Communities and Local Government.

5.Wapping Women's Centre Business Enterprise Scheme. Contact Minara Begum c/o Wapping Women's Centre tel 020 7702 0036.

6. International Women's Week in Tower Hamlets. 1-9 March 2008. Women and Work was the theme for this year's celebration of International Women's Week in Tower Hamlets. There were over 35 diverse events across the borough demonstrating the contribution of women to the community. Full details of all the events can be downloaded from the Alternative Arts website, www.alternativearts.co.uk.