|
1996
- 1997 -1998
-1999 -2002
- Present |
| |
 |
Produce
grown by Daintynak Performing School, East London,
played a big part in Culture Kitchen 2004. |
WEN’s
campaign
WEN’s campaigning on food has evolved from raising
awareness of food miles – how far your food
has travelled – and pollution issues, to support
for women to grow their own locally.
The
Local Food Project is central to WEN’s core
work of making sustainable living accessible to more
people under the ethos of a right to live well. It
has now been active since 1996. |
| |
|
|
| |
WEN
was one of the first organisations to spot and campaign about
the potential dangers of genetic engineering as a serious
threat to the environment and a potential danger to public
health. Through its Test Tube Harvest campaign it
called for a total freeze on genetic engineering in food and
farming, as it can neither be proved necessary nor safe, and
demanded a ban on life patents on genes, life-forms and body
parts. Although WEN no longer has resources for an active
campaign, it supports other groups that are (more
info). And its ground-breaking Gene
Files continue to be a valuable educational resource on
the issue. |
| |
|
| |
 WEN
was at the forefront of the campaign to expose food miles.
Our work began in 1997 when the Think global, eat local
campaign was designed to make people think about how far their
food had travelled to get to their plate. Click
here for a link to our latest briefing on food miles called
Sustainable Sustenance (268k pdf). |
| |
| Breathe
easy – buy local 1997 |
|
| |
We
also researched the pollution caused by transporting food
such long distances and the chemicals that food is often treated
with to prevent it from ripening too soon. Please contact
us for a copy of our poster, illustrating the issue of food
miles, which is suitable for schools, offices, community centres
and hospitals. |
| |
|
| |
We
worked with The Soil Association to run the country's first
conference on farmers’ markets to help promote them.
A few years ago there were none in this country and now there
are hundreds. |
| |
|
| |
Our
next project supported food co-operatives, smaller shops and
seed exchange networks, buying locally grown and organic produce
to form direct links between farmer, communities and the growing
and preparing of food whenever possible. Our subsequent campaign
involved promoting local food in the form of food co-ops,
vegetable box schemes and farmers’ markets. These are
all schemes that enable local people to obtain locally produced
food. |
| |
Work
in Tower Hamlets, E London
WEN's
office is based in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East
End of London. The borough is home to a diverse and vibrant
community, over 58 per cent of which is from non-white British
ethnic groups (2001 census). WEN has built up strong links
with women’s groups and community groups here. WEN’s
work in Tower Hamlets began in 1998 with a three year project
on market waste prevention at Spitalfields Market and Spitalfields
City Farm.
In
1999 WEN started working on food growing in Tower Hamlets
with a Bangladeshi women’s group based at the local
Jagonari Women’s Centre. They asked for support to
secure local space to grow traditional Bangladeshi vegetables.
WEN looked into what help was already out there and discovered
that there was very little support or accessible information
available, despite growing interest from ethnic minority
groups in food growing. This led to WEN developing a local
food programme in order to meet this demand. |
| |
| Taste
of a Better Future 1999 |
|
| |
 Taste
of a Better Future is a network for women growing food
in the city and was set up to give practical, small scale,
specialised support to Black and Minority Ethnic women’s
groups enabling them to start growing food in urban areas.
The project also developed a national network of food growing
groups. A study for East London & the City Health Authority
(ELCHA) Health Action Zone (HAZ) 2000 highlights the inner
city as a primary area experiencing ‘food poverty’
– poor access to affordable, healthy, fresh, local food. |
| |
| Green
Fingered Monsters 2002-4 |
|
| |
 |
Children
from Bigland Green School Tower Hamlets East London
learn to grow herbs and vegetables with WEN. |
| |
Its
aims were to work with 12 schools in the London Borough
of Tower Hamlets on composting and waste prevention. It
was implemented as part of WEN’s ongoing work with
women’s and community groups to promote local, organic
food growing. Its success was evaluated by interviewing
the key staff involved about perceived changes in knowledge,
attitudes and behaviour of pupils and staff in two of the
12 schools. There were concerns about the sustainability
of the initiative once WEN was no longer involved. Further
work was recommended on improving the methods used and supporting
schools to incorporate food growing and composting into
the curriculum.
The
Green Fingered Monsters report can be viewed here
(335k pdf) |
| |
| Cultivating
the Future 2002-4 |
|
| |
 |
Sufia
Alam, Co-ordinator of Wapping Women's Centre |
| |
In
2002 we started a project designed to promote training in
basic composting skills to the community food groups we
had already helped set up, so the women became experts able
to train others. The project particularly targeted women
because women from BME communities in urban areas are often
disadvantaged and isolated. They often have restricted access
to fresh affordable healthy food and people in inner cities
are losing contact with where their food has come from.
By promoting training in composting to urban food growers,
the campaign linked two of WEN’s principal campaigning
concerns: local food promotion and waste prevention.
|
| |
| Cultivating
the Future 2005+ |
|
| |
This
is the core of our current work. The project supports a
network of ethnic minority and other disadvantaged women’s
groups. It delivers training and support to participants
in inner city areas, empowering them and providing them
with the skills and confidence to work together to transform
neglected urban spaces close to their homes into vibrant
safe community gardens. The project is being delivered in
four regions: London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Birmingham,
Sheffield and Bradford.
We
continue to work with and support local community food-growing
groups through this and various other projects. See our
Local page for information on our
work with groups in London Borough of Tower Hamlets and
Network page for more information
on our national network. |
 |
