#GrowCookShare in NELincolnshire
On October 1st , several thousand people enjoyed a fun-packed, food-based celebration in Grimsby based on Growing, Cooking and Sharing.
The celebration was the culmination of an 18-month long project called Edible Grimsby.
The project worked with a variety of community groups in that time – largely but exclusively based in 6 Wards in the borough. Despite the name, this included Cleethorpes and Immingham, as well as Grimsby!
Grow
There were already a few community gardens in NELincolnshire – Scartho Community Garden and Buffalo Bill’s Pocket Park to name but two.
As Community Food Co-ordinator in NELincs, Mary Vickers (who is also a Board member of GLFP) had already been trying to encourage further community growing, and Edible Grimsby built on her previous work.
Different community groups worked on shared allotments, whilst others converted some of their own land into shared growing spaces.
Some continued their existing growing projects whilst others started growing for the first time.
As well as growing whatever they wanted to grow for their own use, Edible Grimsby groups were encouraged to grow food that might go into dishes they could cook together for their community.
They were also encouraged to grow tomatoes and herbs, which were then donated to a local sauce maker – Cadey from The Beatroot Collective – who produced NELincolnshire’s first ever shared community ketchup!
Cook
In 2021, a number of community groups had run cookery courses to help them make use of Slow Cookers distributed through Mary’s #OnePotWonder project.
This was built on in Edible Grimsby, with cookery courses being run in each of the 6 Wards.
Some of these focused on particular types of cooking (eg slow cookers) whilst others focused on topics such as ‘simple family meals’ or ‘cooking on a budget’.
One additional common theme, though, was to come up with meals that used the veg grown in their community growing space to make dishes that could be shared with the wider community in their area.
Share
Each Ward held a community fun day or similar event over the summer, where dishes were cooked and shared with the wider community.
At the big Edible Grimsby Celebration on 1st October, amongst all the entertainment, was a ‘Community Kitchen’ tent.
Led by one professionally trained community cook, who’d been part of the project in her own community, a team of volunteer cooks, kitchen assistants, and servers, produced 6 dishes of which taster sized samples were served to the general public attending the event.
It’s estimated that over 3000 servings were shared.
Some of those in the Community Kitchen hadn’t done much, or even any, cooking or food preparation this time last year, and none had ever really served that many people in such quick succession in one session!
As well as the community groups, Edible Grimsby, involved lots of other sharing too.
GLFP Food Partner, Green Futures, were heavily involved; as were Culture House a local arts/event company who provided a wide variety of food-related entertainment.
Local musicians were also invited to perform, and in the morning, there’d been a ‘Feast of ideas’ in Grimsby Minster where a wide range of speakers had shared their thoughts on diverse topics as food sustainability, food banks, food for health, food in the community and, of course, different aspects of #GrowCookShare
Photo credit: Paul J Cunningham Photography
Stay in the loop on the Edible Grimsby social media, or email Mary: Mary@nbforum.org.uk
More from the blog…
Helen Fisher: a new coordinator at the Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership
I’m excited to introduce my new colleague at the Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership: Helen Fisher. I asked our network what you’d like to know about her – thanks to our friends for these great questions: How did you get into the world of regenerative solutions and low carbon shenanigans (the official terminology in case you…
The Story Behind Food Price Rises
You have probably noticed the cost of your supermarket trip rising – food prices have gone up 30% since April 2022. Research by the Food Foundation found households struggling with the cost of food tended to cut back on fruit and veg, exacerbating health inequalities. Food insecurity now affects one in eight households – one…
Young Person’s Contribution: Can Robots Impact Our Food Choices?
Guest post by Aura Anderson-Ross, University of Lincoln Can a robot convince you to eat more sustainable foods? With concerns surrounding the climate and food systems growing, a lot of research has been focusing on the best ways to promote sustainable eating. One such example is the development of social robots to provide nudges towards…
Leave a Reply