PRESS RELEASE
Power of Food Festival brings Tower Hamlets together to celebrate community, culture and climate action
18–28 September 2025 – Free, community-led events across the borough
The Power of Food Festival takes place across Tower Hamlets with 10 days of free events celebrating the borough’s community and food cultures, showcasing local projects tackling food injustice and building a fairer, more sustainable food system.
Running from 18–28 September, the festival has a packed programme of community meals, supper clubs, workshops, film screenings, photography exhibitions, kids’ activities, panel discussions, and tours of gardens and food-growing spaces, including a farm based in Essex that grows food for the borough.
Events will be held at a mix of well-known venues – including the Town Hall, Whitechapel Gallery, Rich Mix, St Margaret’s House, Stepney and Spitalfields City Farms, and Queen Mary University – as well as at hidden gems like local community gardens, House of Annetta (an eighteenth-century house on Princelet Street), and R-Urban (an eco civic hub tucked away in Brion Place).
Over 30 local groups, grassroots projects, and community organisations will take part, to share local knowledge and skills around food, inspire new ways of thinking about our food system and the future, and build support so the borough’s community-powered food movement continues to grow.
The festival is organised by the Just Food and Climate Transition Programme (Just FACT), led by Wen (Women’s Environmental Network). Just FACT is made up of a network of people and projects in Tower Hamlets and is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF)’s Climate Action Fund.
Elle McAll, JustFACT Programme Manager at Wen, says:
“Food is power – it connects us to our roots, our culture, and each other. The Power of Food Festival is a celebration of everything that makes Tower Hamlets vibrant and special. Across the borough, incredible community projects are already showing what’s possible – growing, cooking, and campaigning for a food system that puts people and the planet before profit. This festival is about recognising this work and building momentum for a fairer future.”
The family-friendly festival is free to attend and open to everyone, especially local people, community organisers and anyone passionate about the food justice movement.
The full programme and tickets will be available at https://justfact.co.uk/festival/ in August.
Stay up to date via @wen_uk on social media and follow the hashtag #PowerOfFoodFest.
Programme highlights – more to be announced soon:
- The Full English photography exhibition at Poplar Union
- Screening of short films at Whitechapel Gallery
- Unveiling a new anaerobic digester at R-Urban
- Right to Grow food garden tour with Cranbrook Community Garden
- Folx Farm open day in Hastings
- Pickling workshop & meal at Swendenborg Orchard
- Community Harvest Festival Celebration at Stepney City Farm
- Perpetual stew at House of Annetta
- Chanachur and chai making workshop at Queen Mary University
- Tours and workshops at Spitalfields City Farm
- Storyplay creative session for families at Rich Mix
- Family cook-along sessions with school children
– Ends –
Notes to editors:
Wen is the Women’s Environmental Network, an environmental charity working at the intersection of gender, health and environmental justice.
Just FACT is a five-year partnership programme led by Wen with research from Platform London. It’s a network of people and projects in Tower Hamlets, coming together to create the building blocks for an alternative food system that is democratic, environmentally sustainable, and people-driven. The project is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF)’s Climate Action Fund.
