Lambeth Town Hall was abuzz on the evening of November 1st for the Blooming Lambeth Awards 2022. Among the glistening squashes and crunchy autumn leaves that decorated every table, were seated men, women and children who had spent hours every week caring for gardens, orchards and vegetable plots. And now everyone was waiting for the results of this year’s Blooming Lambeth Awards – from the best volunteer for a community growing space to the best school garden.
The excitement was palpable, the music was rousing and the soup was warming and delicious. Over the next two hours, gardeners, volunteers, and gardens were honoured and celebrated, just as they deserved! We were very happy to welcome Arit Anderson from Gardeners World to present them with their prizes and certificates, and to have their photo taken with her.
We awarded 43 prizes in eight categories rewarding hardworking and attentive individuals and groups.
We hope that you will come across a few, or many of these thriving green spaces around Lambeth, and know that we will continue to work to our mission – which is to support and advocate for access to healthy, affordable food, grown and produced locally, with an ultimate goal of a food growing space being within 100m of every Lambeth home.
With special thanks to all the countless hours of voluntary work put in by IEL directors to making this competition and event an enormous success, along with the help and support of the Lambeth Housing Community engagement team.
The Blooming Lambeth Awards 2022 were supported by the generous sponsorship of Lambeth Council, the T Brown Group and OpenView Security Solutions, making it possible to award £4,000 of prizes in the form of B&Q vouchers to the selected awardees of Commended, Highly Commended and Winner accolades.
Additional sponsorship for the awards ceremony night was received from the Lambeth Business Improvement Districts (BID’s); InStreatham, This is Clapham, Brixton BID and WeAreWaterloo, whose contributions supported the decorations, food and music for the ceremony.
We would also like to thank The Platform Cafe for providing wonderful soup, Blackbird Bakery for delicious bread and cakes, and Pangea for their sublime music.
And our special thanks to Arit anderson for making the evening so special for so many.
And our biggest, warmest congratulations to all who took part and look upon open land as ground for possibilities and plant seeds to make them come true.