Photo opportunity: Thursday 24 October 2002, 12 noon-5pm,
'Cycle of Life' feast for ethnic minority food-growing network,
Brady Arts & Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury St, Whitechapel, London E1

'Cycle of Life' is a celebratory feast by members of WEN's organic food growing and composting groups to be held on 24 October.

Women and children from across the country are bringing food, spices, herbs and enthusiasm, for a great cook-in at the Brady Arts & Community Centre in Whitechapel, East London. Members of ethnic-minority growing groups as far apart as Glasgow, Bradford, Luton, Croydon and Sussex are expected to attend, as well as groups from Tower Hamlets and Kings Cross, London.

While some chop and prepare food under the guidance of cuisinere Miche Fabre Lewin, others will visit a nearby garden. Members have been encouraged to bring displays about their projects and after the feast there will be a workshop to share ideas and inspiration.

The feast is a celebration of the cyclical nature of growing your own food organically: composting kitchen and garden scraps feeds the earth for the food we eat; growing organically works with the cycles of nature.

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Caroline Fernandez Food Project Co-ordinator
020 7481 9004, food@wen.org.uk, Fax 020 7481 9144

Notes to editors:
1. 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.
2. The 'Taste of a Better Future' Network was set up three 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 three years, the 30+ 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', is helping the groups share and develop composting skills.
3. Cultivating the Future is supported by the SEED Programme and the New Opportunities Fund. The Feast is funded by St Katharine and Shadwell Trust
4. Miche Fabre Lewin is a professional cuisinere, who draws on the healing and nutritional traditions of Chinese, French and Zen cuisine
5. Photographers and reporters are welcome to attend. The best photo opportunities will probably be between 12.15-1.15pm when some women will be working in the kitchen and others will visit nearby Spitalfields City Farm where pumpkins are nearly ready to harvest.