We’re very excited to be working alongside some visionary women in the Calderdale food system on our Landed Community Kitchens project. More and more we see paradigm shifting work like theirs as the building of metaphorical ‘rafts’ – things that we build that will prevent us from sinking in the face of the various shocks coming our way. Things that will hold us together and keep us moving with change while providing points of coming together, stability and cooperation.
I think that’s what these women are doing. It is mighty work.
Aine Douglas, Jenny Slaughter and Sarah Waddington have developed some of the foundations of long term food resilience for the citizens of Calderdale, in particular Hebden Bridge and Halifax.
A cornerstone of this is Grow and Graze in conjunction with the Calderdale Ecological Land Trust (CELT). By establishing and using a Land Trust, Grow and Graze has a means to take on land and lease it to agroecological growers who can sell their produce directly into established outlets provided by Pennine Cropshare, Valley Organics and others. This excellent short film explains how they went about it…
Sarah Waddington helps to run The Outback in the urban centre of Halifax – an area that’s in the 10% most deprived areas of England. The Outback has a straw bale built community kitchen in a 1 acre market garden. An unexpected oasis that is a place of solace, creativity, nourishment and connection for many people of all ages.
The Outback is a project of the Halifax Opportunities Trust.
https://www.halifaxopportunitiestrust.org.uk/places/the-outback-community-kitchen-and-garden/
Together, we’ll be exploring over the next two years how to strengthen this network of key food infrastructure elements; to continue to get nutrient dense food to the people who need it most in the form of delicious meals and high quality ingredients, and how to empower more and more people to participate in the creation of a just, resilient and delicious food system. Calderdale will have a lot of very valuable knowledge and experience to share with the others in our Landed Community Kitchens community.