Since late 2019, we’ve been creating the Limborough Food Hub on the Burdett Estate in Poplar. It’s a bit of a dream project for the Local Food team, giving us the opportunity to connect with residents and the wider community through food, and make use of the community garden, training kitchen and workshop space.

Covid meant that we were unable to deliver the activities we wanted in 2020, but we were delighted to help set up The Food Store, the borough’s first community food pantry, which opened in November 2020.

Since spring 2021, we’ve been at Limborough more regularly, and recently we’ve run a number of meetings, workshops and an all-day event. Here are some of the highlights:

SHARING DAY

In June, we held our Sharing Day, as part of this year’s Keep Growing campaign. We invited local growers to be Growing Champions, sending 15 individuals and one school seeds and coir pellets to grow around 50 seedlings each. Growers were invited to keep a few seedlings for themselves and share the rest, either at the Sharing Day or with their own neighbourhoods.

At the Sharing Day, growers swapped seeds and seedlings with residents and other local stakeholders, while local Bangladeshi women’s collective Oitij-jo provided delicious snacks. Around 150 guests attended throughout the day, including residents, users of the food pantry, children from the local football club, Cllr Asma Khan and Deputy Mayor Rachel Blake.

SUMMER WORKSHOPS

We also held workshops over the school holidays. Local children and families, as well as the community gardeners, have been learning about the medicinal benefits of herbs and how to take cuttings, painting pots for seedlings and making beautiful screenprints of wonderful weeds!