The current print edition of Gasholder features the fantastic community produce and social project Food Assembly on the cover. Grab your copy while they are still available from these nearby locations. Meanwhile, here are five more food-focused good causes that you must make sure you check out, in and around King’s Cross.
1. Eat Club
Preparing and eating delicious meals as a social activity can have a profoundly positive impact on young people, particularly if they rarely dine with family at home. Eat Club runs such sessions around King’s Cross in places like the Copenhagen Youth Project and Somers Town Youth Centre. Their work is part-funded by regular Solo Supper Clubs, where people are encouraged to come alone, make new friends and learn kitchen skills while preparing a feast, then enjoyed together over a glass of vino or two. The next event (Fri 21st April) is inspired by a love of cheese – and wine. Events are usually held around the third Wednesday of the month.
More info & tickets
2. Calthorpe Project
This unlikely gap in the office blocks along one of London’s major thoroughfares is the result of a successful campaign by locals in the 1980s to block a huge development. Instead, the area now is now a vital green oasis, including community gardening for older people, under-fives and Bangladeshi women. Harvested produce can be enjoyed in the on-site vegetarian café, and there’s an education facility that turns food waste into biogas for heating and cooking.
258-274 Gray’s Inn Rd, WC1X. More info
3. Vegbox
Just up the road, environment champions Transition Kentish Town run their own ethical produce delivery scheme. Bundles of fresh, locally sourced veg arrive every Wednesday at various handy pick-up points, including pubs, cafes and even the big red telephone box in Camden Market. They now also do seasonal fruit selections too.
Info and sign up
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4. Elm Village
Urban Growth is a local programme that helps people overcoming mental health issues by providing a horticultural training. As well as the calming effects of planting and harvesting a sizable organic garden, the scheme offers the chance to learn useful new vocational skills too. Their Elm Village plot, on former railway scrub land, is not open to the public, but there are open days and you can find out more about the project at here.
5. Skip Garden
Repurposing rubbish skips to use as planters and thereby creating a fully moveable garden are the hallmarks of this innovative urban agriculture project from charity Global Generation. Read their full story here. Having traveled the King’s Cross construction site, their current semi-permanent home features some innovative student architecture as well as a cosy café, and lots of opportunities to volunteer in growing skip-based veg. You can also hire the space for ‘moveable feasts’ in the evenings too.
Tapper Walk, N1C. More info
