We were happy to be part of Eurocities’ Cleverfood‘s visit to Lambeth on 10th and 11th September, organised by Lambeth Food Partnership and Lambeth Council, with guests from Brussels, Italy, Austria and Portugal. An IEL director supported the organisation of the visit, ensuring that they visited a range of fantastic food growing sites.
Cleverfood stands for Connected Labs for Empowering Versatile Engagement in Radical Food system transformation. This EU project is all about improving how we produce, buy, and consume food across Europe.
During their visit to Lambeth, the group enjoyed a presentation about Lambeth Council’s food strategies, then visited Brixton Market and the fantastic food growing project at Heathbrook Primary School on 10th September. The next day, they toured local food organisations in the Food Five Ways area, starting with breakfast at Myatt’s Fields Park and a tour of the greenhouse which supports local groups with baby plants. They then walked to a food growing space in Styles Gardens and toured Loughborough Farm, learning about Loughborough Junction Action Group’s projects supporting health and wellbeing through food growing, volunteering, training and creative activities. Finally they visited Healthy Living Platform’s pantry in Moorlands Estate, learning how HLP distributes a huge amount of surplus food to individuals and groups in the borough, as well as providing training and wellbeing activities. Everyone then enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Platform Cafe.
It was inspiring to see how knowledge-sharing across Europe helps grow healthier, more sustainable food communities. The visitors were inspired to see the dynamism of the community sector, and they enjoyed learning about ways in which councils and residents can work together.
Find out more about Cleverfood here.