Food Links Celebration Day

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Find out more about growing your own and buying local produce

Ealing Council will be hosting a Food Links Celebration Day on the 28th June for anyone who is interested in finding out more about growing their own food and buying locally produced products. The aim of the day is to start to help link up all the different projects in the borough that are promoting local food and healthy eating.

There will be information, advice and suggestions from the council’s rangers who run the community orchards, the allotment’s manger, the five a day co-ordinator and the a community dietician from the health service.

Representatives from Fairtrade that markets fairly produced products from the developing world, the Kids Cookery School, London Food Links and the Ealing Beekeepers Association will also be on hand to give their advice from how to make your own honey to how to be more environmentally aware when shopping. Ben Reynolds of London Food Links will be talking about his work promoting sustainable, local food in London.

Cllr John Delaney, cabinet member for streets and environment said, “Healthy eating isn’t just about what you put on your plate, its also about being more aware of how certain foods have been cultivated and transported to stores before you buy them. A lot of recent research has shown that more people want locally produced food. This day gives people the opportunity to come along and find out more about what’s available in Ealing.”

Some of the projects that the council has financially supported to grow their own food have been: -

• The Natural Growth Project, which uses gardening to help victims of torture. They have 30 allotment sites in Ealing.
• The Churchfield Community Association who ran a very successful Food Fair last month in Acton.
• Saharra Court Residents Association who devised raised gardening plots for their elderly residents.

This event forms part of the Council’s Food Matters strategy, which aims to help make Ealing a healthier and fitter borough. A three-year action plan was launched in November last year and aimed to co-ordinate food work in the borough, involve local communities in food matters and raise awareness of healthy eating.

March 27, 2004