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

Over 75 women and children from across the country brought food, spices, herbs and enthusiasm, for a fabulous and colourful cook-in at the Brady Arts & Community Centre in Whitechapel, East London. Members of multi-cultural growing groups as far apart as Glasgow, Bradford, Luton and Croydon attended, as well as groups from Tower Hamlets, Stoke Newington and Kings Cross, London. Cultural groups were represented from Bangladesh, Uganda, Somalia, Korea, Spain, Guyana, Ireland, India, Pakistan and Iran.

Mrs A. Bibi and Johirun Nessa each brought and used a traditional Bengali tool called a 'dar', which is a self supporting knife used to cut vegetables cleanly and quickly. Mary Nakimuli from Daintynak school brought some a huge knobbly red skinned potatoes that she had grown with her children's group. While some chopped and prepared food with the gentle facilitation from cuisinere Miche Fabre Lewin, others visited Spitalfields City Farm garden nearby.

Dreams for the garden projects were discussed, Lutfun Hussain from Spitalfields City Farm said, "We want to get a nice big heated greenhouse." She was then able to share ideas in a small group about the next achievable steps towards the dream.

Kate Hopewell, a community food advisor said, "It was great for me to speak to people who already had projects up and running and to share inspiration."

Miche Fabre Lewin said, "The women thought they were just coming to chop, but discovered they were creating a cplourful medley of tastes and textures that combined really well to reflect the cultural diversity of the occasion."

The feast was 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.

ENDS

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

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. Photos available on request. Visit the gallery click here.