Global Garden, Global Kitchen Crowdfunding to Grow Food and Community Pride
August 5, 2013 by Robin Plaskoff Horton
Tottenham, a multi-cultural community of north London, will soon experience a growth spurt when it becomes home to the Global Garden, Global Kitchen, a community food hub where produce will be grown, prepared and distributed to locals by bicycle.
Part of the Selby Trust, the community initiative has already raised half of their £11,331 goal through a crowdfunding campaign on Spacehive .
Dexter Kelly, the initiative’s Project Manager and owner of the Holistic Kitchen Company and Successful Plate Ltd, said that the Selby Trust–a local community and social enterprise charity–plays an important leadership role in spearheading this community effort for a sustainable growing space.
Consistent with the Selby Trust motto “Many Cultures–One Community,” project plans include the transformation of the former school grounds of the Selby Centre into a community food garden with 40 raised beds, fruit trees, and a growing terrace as well as a kitchen for cooking classes. In the new culturally diverse space, local residents will learn to grow and cook a mix of produce that reflects Tottenham’s diversity.
Global Garden, Global Kitchen will focus on holistic living and practical outcomes such as work experience, improving community pride, and awareness of green issues and will provide for those from some of the most deprived backgrounds in London who currently have no access to an outside area of their own.
“We’ll grow more than food,” say the project’s organizers. We want to grow our community through practical skills training and volunteering. We will actively engage local youth, disabled people and socially excluded individuals.”
Fundraising through Spacehive continues through the end of 2013. Photos via Global Garden, Global Kitchen.