Gorgeous goody bags; ravishing raffle; vintage, designer and second-hand accessories; and money raised for a good cause: our much anticipated fundraiser with social enterprise Sweet Notions is finally upon us. On Wednesday 16 February, Lynne Franks will be opening up her stylish lounge in Covent Garden for an evening of well-intentioned shopping and socialising. We hope to see you at B.Hive, 26-27 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RS from 6.30 to 9.30pm.
If you aren't able to come along on the night but would like to enter the raffle draw and win one of our fabulous donated prizes, please contact us 0207 481 9004 or email fundraising@wen.org.uk
In the meantime, if you have old accessories (jewellery, hats, scarves and bags, but not clothes) that you no longer want or need, please get in touch with Sweet Notions. For more information about Sweet Notions, visit www.sweetnotions.org or view this short film.
Despite a freezing start to the new year we've been out sowing broad beans and garlic at our latest Spice It Up course, hosted by the wonderful Zacchaeus Project, Bethnal Green.
The next introductory course takes place in June at a location in Tower Hamlets. Participants receive four weeks’ free training (six hours per week) in organic food growing skills; a certificate of achievement; a food-growing starter kit; and a chance to become a Local Food Ambassador.
You don’t need to have experience to join the programme; the only requirements are an interest in food-growing and regular attendance at the training sessions and volunteer placements. Priority for places is given to women living in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Childcare can be provided if arranged beforehand.
Please get in touch to arrange booking as spaces are limited: Call our Local Food team on 020 7481 9004 or email spiceitup@wen.org.uk.
January Chisenhale Trip
The first Spice It Up outing of 2011 has already taken place, combining art, gardening and a nature walk in the inner city! In a well-attended event, over 20 WEN food-growing trainees, volunteers and staff joined artist Charlotte Mew on an adventure through a London park, beside a canal and ended up at the new Olympic Site. Charlotte gave us all a twig with a label attached, asking us to note down or draw things which caught our eye on the walk. Massive trees, catkins, ducks, swans and crows all featured. Crows are known as 'tuke' in Somalia, trainees told us, and in Somalia are much bigger, but make the same sound! Charlotte will combine our drawings and notes with photographs to produce a piece of art telling the story of our walk. The event provided another opportunity for WEN to spread awareness about its work to new people, and also give Spice It Up trainees an opportunity to think
about nature and gardening in a new way. Useful links were formed between WEN, Spice It up Trainees and the Chisenhale Art Space's Art and Gardening project . It was decided that WEN will run a Spice It Up training programme from the Art and Gardening projects canalside garden later this year.
Kirsten Downer, Peer Support Network
WEN Walking Holidays
Eileen Peck from WEN's Southeast Essex local group writes:
Last year I had a lovely holiday in Scotland. I went with a friend, stayed in Youth Hostels and B & B places and really felt that I had been in touch with the natural world. I came back feeling refreshed, fit, not too out of pocket and reckoning that my holiday carbon footprint had been just about as small as we could make it.
So, I thought, why don’t we start up a WEN holiday group where we share ideas for and the fun of low cost/low carbon holidays. The trick is to plan well in advance so that we can take advantage of those really cheap train tickets which can be booked up to three months in advance. It seems that the nearer the departure date gets the more expensive the tickets. I looked for a return train ticket London to Glasgow for the end of March and found it would cost £48.50 return if the journey was on a Sunday. That’s with my older people’s railcard, without which the return fare would be £76. Sunday seemed to be the cheapest day to travel. It just shows though that if you are able to be flexible in travel dates and book well in advance you can take advantage of the low-carbon low-cost way of travelling by rail!
The cost is similar to travel to St Ives – if the intention was to walk some of the Cornish coastal path – bliss! My other recent discovery is the ‘carry your bag’ service which is on offer in lots of tourist areas. I first came across it along Hadrian’s Wall. We left our bags in the hostel reception area and were (I have to admit it!) rather surprised when the bags turned up at our B & B place the following evening. The bags followed us along Hadrians Wall for four nights without a slip. So much nicer walking without the heavy weight of your bag on your back. And all for not much more than £7 per bag per night.
I’m looking for companions to join me on a low-cost/low-carbon fun short holiday (or two!) this coming Summer. In the depths of winter its fun to plan for the sunny days ahead, so please get in touch if you fancy getting started on the planning right now!
Contact: eileen@peckfamily.co.uk
The New Home Front
The threat of climate change and the lack of government action can feel hopeless and worrying for many people. However, a new report might help you take heart – showing how the UK has encountered terrifying challenges and profound reluctance to tackle them before – and come out on top.
The New Home Front Report commissioned by Green MP Caroline Lucas and launched last month, draws parallels between where we are now and the late 1930s. Then, as now, politicians of all parties ignored an imminent threat (then: war in Europe now: Climate Change) by using excuses that there was not sufficient money to pay for adequate defences, and that the British public would not support a government that took tough measures. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
By the end of the 30's, says the report, 'public opinion was far ahead of Chamberlain's government in demanding tough measures' and in the end it took a different kind of leader, Churchill, to take the necessary action. There are other parallels too, the report illustrates, people were called upon to become self-sufficient - and they did so, in a big way. In just six years from 1938, British homes cut their coal use by 11 million tonnes, a reduction of 25 per cent. Meanwhile, food consumption fell 11 per cent by 1944 from before the war, 'but thanks to a scientifically planned national food policy', overall population health improved. Use of household electrical appliances dropped 82 per cent. And the nation got behind rationing because they knew it was a fairer way to deal with food scarcity than relying on prices.The public has and will support tough measures, so long as they're fair,
argues the report: 'rationing and conscription were introduced as much in response to popular pressure from below as it was to a desire for national controls from above.' And it wasn't all about sacrifice: state intervention during those years meant that infant mortality dropped, the nation's health improved, and more people enjoyed art and culture for the first time with attendance on theatre and cinemas all increasing.
Today, many groups across the UK, including WEN, are leading the way to a new Home Front. If you haven't already started or joined a WEN Three Tonne Club, then download the pdf handbook
to get going. The handbook will help you shed the tonnes of carbon necessary to secure a stable future. Just as slimming clubs help thousands of people to achieve and maintain their target weight, the Three Tonne Club helps people slim down their carbon footprint. You weigh yourself in at the first session, and follow-up monthly meetings focus on individual topics such as home energy, air travel or food, so that members can share problems and solutions.
Some local authorities and enlightened companies are also planning ahead. Together all of these elements need to become a force that convinces the political classes that genuine action is possible, says the report, and its publication is the kickstart to that process. Over the next six months the New Home Front initiative will gather experiences of those who lived through the war to find practical ways to reduce waste and end our dependence on scarce resources. If you have something to contribute, then contact the New Home Front initiative now. Email Caroline Lucas MP on caroline.lucas.mp@parliament.uk
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