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Every Little Helps…

We are delighted to announce that we have recently received a grant of £1000 from Tesco’s “Bags for Help” grant programme. The scheme gives community projects like us grants of up to £2,000 – all raised from the sale of carrier bags in Tesco stores. You can find out more about it here.

Small grants like this are vital in enabling us to continue to do our work in Southwark – especially when there is so much uncertainty at the moment.

So… a huge thanks goes to Tesco and all of those who continue to support us!

Artist Profile: Sanira Emon

At Edible Rotherhithe we are incredibly lucky to have collaborated with some fantastically creative types who have helped us deliver workshops for young people in Southwark. Here we find out more about one of them…

Sanira Emon manages Paper Fight Art and offers art workshops and pop-ups at events, craft fairs and art clubs. You can see a range of her work on Instagram @paper.fight.art where she makes posters, prints and cards, using a variety of mediums including linoprint, watercolour, collage, paint, ink and pencil. 

Most recently Paper Fight Art has been producing handprinted totebags and aprons based on artwork by children from after school printing workshops arranged by Edible Rotherhithe. You can even nab yourself one here!

Sanira also contributed to Walking Words, a collaboration with other artists and poets who worked with the children at schools in Southwark to produce poetry, linocuts, comic strips, prints and perfomances. The work was used in a successful end of year school show and exhibitions at the Tate Exchange.

A new look for the new term

A very strange summer for everyone hasn’t stopped us being busy here at Edible Rotherhithe. We were generously awarded some funding by Southwark Council via their Cleaner Greener Safer fund, and have been putting it to good use as we have gone about giving the poly tunnel (and surrounding area) and Surrey Square School a complete makeover!

We have been very lucky to work with Peter Balazs, a local community gardener who heads up several projects (anyone heard of Stompie!?). He has replaced four old and unused raised beds with two extra large raised beds with safe step decking that all 500 children at Surrey Square School can use for tending the vegetables, relaxing and listening to sounds of nature.

The netting on top of the beds will be finished soon, as will the planting of the apple and soft fruit tree orchard. Overall 150 ft of new safe growing space will be created.

Peter will also be erecting a picket fence in front of the poly tunnel which will protect the tunnel from foxes and discourage the children from playing from the water tap. There is also 10 mature lavender plants to be planted near the tunnel which will attract the bees (hopefully increasing bio diversty) and will also supply lavender for the after school clubs to make lavender bags. We will also be setting up the hot bin posh composter for the school’s kitchen waste.

By the time the work has been completed there will have been over 400 edibles planted, all ready for the children to start looking after!

We are now a charity!

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Edible Rotherhithe (formerly a Community Interest Company) is now officially a charity!

We felt that the change was necessary as we started to deliver more charitable projects locally that were being funded by various grant programmes. The switch also allows us to secure vital donations so that we can continue to running projects for the local community in Southwark.

We are an entirely volunteer-run charity and without the support of donations we simply wouldn’t be able to do what we do. We need your help, especially in times of such uncertainty…

We use donations to run workshops and sessions, purchase materials, maintain our outdoor spaces, and cover any administrative costs.

We are incredibly thankful to anyone who puts their hand in their pocket to support our work – so much so that we have teamed up with Sanira at Paper Fight who has created these beautifully designed and unique rewards. A £15 donation will secure you an exclusive tote bag, and a £20 donation will get you a very stylish apron. Check out the photos below!

If you would like to make a donation to support our work, you can do so by visiting our donate page here.