Stoke Newington Women's Institute WI

Sophie Verhagen of Growing Communities who work around Hackney and in the vegetable garden by the butterfly dome in Clissold Park has kindly agreed to come and talk to us about what they do Below is her introduction to Monday’s Talk:

website: http://www.growingcommunities.org

Growing Communities is a community-led organisation based in Hackney, North London, which has been providing a real alternative to the current damaging food system over the past 18 years.  
We are a not for profit social enterprise which consists of three main areas of work: the organic fruit and vegetable scheme and the Stoke Newington Farmers' Market and the urban market gardens.  The Farmers' Market and Fruit and Veg scheme harness the collective buying power of our community and direct it towards those farmers who are producing food in a sustainable way - allowing those small-scale farmers and producers whom we believe are the basis of a sustainable agriculture system to thrive.
Growing Communities believes that if we are to create the sustainable re-localised food systems that will see us through the challenges ahead, we need to work together with communities and farmers to take our food system back from the supermarkets and agribusiness.  As the grower at Growing Communities I will talk about some of the above as well as how we manage our market gardens.