I’ve just made a fantastic discovery!
Photo credit: capitalgrowth.org … Not of the project discussed below.
I basically watched this film about urban food growing and distributing systems and became so inspired that I really wanted to be involved in one of the awesome local food projects exemplified in the film. I sent the link to my friend who’s also into this kind of stuff, and suggested we could try and start something.
I went and made a hummus, tofu and salad sandwich and devoured it happily, thinking about how I really wanted to do something but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. I then realised that my city – being a pretty forward thinking place – probably already had at least one such local food project, that I just didn’t know about.
A very quick Google search confirmed this. The first site I clicked on was this page about a project called VEG – standing for ‘vegetable education garden’ which turns out to be in the exact part of the city that my friend I just emailed is living next year. The garden is run by a group called ‘Hanover Action for Sustainable Living‘. Hanover is the name of that neighbourhood, by the way.
How cool is that?
They run work days every Thursday, 2-7 pm! They also put on educational events.
Next term I have a compulsory volunteering module with my university, where I have to do at least 30 hours of volunteering with something related to sustainable community development. I don’t think you can get more relevant than this group!
It gets even better. As you’d expect, this community garden has compost heaps, and the local residents bring round their food waste to compost. I don’t live in Hanover, but other city residents can do this too and they even provide little compost bins similar to what the council gives out in some constituencies.
If you’ve read some of my earlier posts, you might of heard my moaning about how my council doesn’t collect food waste, how I’ve contacted my MP twice and she hasn’t done anything about it, and how much I hate throwing away organic waste.
I finally have a solution!
It may involve carrying smelly boxes of vegetable peelings across the city on the bus and getting a few funny looks from fellow passengers, but it’s still a solution!
It’s a shame I only found this out an hour after this week’s workday finished otherwise I would have been straight down there today, as I’m going away back to my hometown for a few weeks this Saturday. But when I come back I’ll be all over this garden like humous over riveta.
Earth Baby 