Part of “Where is the Meal?” Event series.
Food is distributed unevenly within towns and cities. The absence of good quality, affordable and culturally appropriate food in some areas has serious consequences for the quality of meals and for the health and mental wellbeing of local residents. Local unavailability of food is also dependent on unequal provision of logistical infrastructures and contributes to increased traffic and environmental pollution. The recent cost of living crisis has added further stress to household budgets and reduced people’s capacity to access good food.
With a focus on Goldsmiths local community in the borough of Lewisham, in this session we ask how such uneven availability of food comes about, and what can be done about it. We also explore how various actors and organisations within communities create alternative forms of food distribution, or food oases, away from existing distribution channels and attuned to local contexts. Lewisham Borough has the highest percentage of people of Black African and African-Caribbean descent in the UK. The session takes place in a community centre in Lewisham’s Downham district, an area with an increasing migrant population. It is centred around a meal prepared with Rastafari Movement UK Wellbeing, a local community food and wellbeing project
Date & Location:
14th May 2024, 6-8pm (food prep starting at 5pm)
Goldsmiths Community Centre (Castillon Rd, London SE6 1PH). See map
Register
Please book a Free ticket for the event via the TicketSource event page.
Guests
Sistah Stella Headley is Co-Founder of Rastafari Movement UK Wellbeing, based in Lewisham, which provide culturally relevant food and support to struggling households, particularly of African and Caribbean descent. RMUK Wellbeing promotes food justice through a range of food and wellbeing support projects that combat food poverty, financial crisis and the development of health conditions faced by vulnerable communities across Southwark, Lewisham and Lambeth. These include food redistribution, doorstep befriending services and setting up social supermarkets that provide fresh, healthy and culturally relevant food in specific urban settings, such as housing estates.
The charity approaches solidarity and spiritual wellness in a ‘holistic’ way, from Rastafari principles of love, kindness, human dignity and belonging. The charity is also an active member of the Lewisham Food Justice Alliance, which aims to promote food justice and Lewisham’s status as a “Right to Food” borough.
Simone Riddle is the Food Justice Programme Manager at Lewisham Local, working closely with Lewisham’s Public Health team on the delivery of Lewisham’s Food Justice Action plan. Simone has worked at the organisation for 6 years, coordinating Rushey Green Time Bank, FoodCycle Lewisham and most recently managing their Food Justice programme.
Ras Asher is a member of the Rastafari Community. He has been a Herbalist and Italist for 30 years and more. His Values and principles are that he stands with righteousness to protect all humanity, his community; and the environment.
Sustainability is one of his main objectives.
His diet consists of herbs and vegetables, and is strict and Ital. He wants to see this world and the environment that we all inhabit, on this planet, free from all pollution and for all of us to live in harmony and at one with nature.
He states “This sums up who I am. Rastafari!”
Hugh Lort-Phillips is the UK Programme Manager of Action Against Hunger UK. He has fourteen years’ experience in the humanitarian sector and four years’ experience of supply chain management in the private sector. Until 2023 he was a Senior Nutrition Assessment Advisor, supporting country offices of his own organisation and others to plan and delivery high quality assessments of nutrition programmes. Since 2023 he has led the development of Action Against Hunger’s UK food programme. This involves working with local, grassroots organisations and local councils to tackle food poverty in UK communities through community food hubs and pantries.
Michael Goodman is an interdisciplinary, critical human geographer focusing on the cultural politics of food, humanitarianism and the environment. Research topics have included fair trade networks, alternative food networks, the rise of celebrity politics in the context of food, climate change and global development and ways society is attempting to make life more just, liveable and care-full in the Anthropocene.
He is particularly interested in conceptualising how these issues and connections are framed in the media in order to understand their social and geographical significance to building more sustainable societies, challenging existing structures of power and offering critical spaces for marginalised voices.
More info
This event is part of “Where is the Meal? A Roving and Participatory Event Series on Food, Place and Communities. “Where is the Meal? is a series of five events responding to the question of how meals relate to place, and its cultural, political, technological and legal conditions. Each event is comprised of a meal for all participants, designed collaboratively by the event organisers and two invited guests at different places in London. Each individual event serves to both perform the topic of the meal, and engage the guests and audience into a relevant discussion.
