Commonwork: Grow, Cook, Eat - what the projects are all about....

Spring is in the air and exciting new work is underway at Commonwork.

The inspiring Grow Cook Eat project will work with schools and community groups to encourage people of all ages to grow and cook healthy and sustainable food.
 
The Food Hub will explore ways of encouraging local communities to buy locally produced food from a number of community based food hubs, set and up and developed by Commonwork in partnership with local groups.
As part of these new projects, we will be renovating the Middle Yard to provide learning and cooking spaces. We will also be digging and developing new growing spaces next to the current organic vegetable plot.
Grow2Grow is a new social enterprise set up in partnership with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) which will provide nurturing opportunities through farming and horticultural placements for vulnerable young adults with or recovering from mental health problems. This project will work alongside and with the Grow Cook Eat growing spaces.

And, in addition, the cows are getting new accommodation. Once the cows are back out in the fields for the spring and summer, work will begin to replace the old winter sheds with new accommodation that will provide more space for the herd.
We hope that all this building and renovating activity will not cause any major inconvenience to our friends and visitors… it will be worth it all in the end.
Commonwork Bore Place Chiddingstone, Kent TN8 7AR
Email: info@commonwork.org Web: www.commonwork.org Tel: 01732 463255

Commonwork: Grow, Cook, Eat and get paid as a gardener ...

Commonwork
Study centre and organic farm is recruiting for two new education and care farming projects involving organic vegetable growing and wellbeing
Grow - Cook – Eat  
Gardener/education project  - Full time, £18-21k pa

Grow2Grow  
Gardener/mental health project  -Full time or job share, £18-21k pa

Thanks to Local Food and Ecominds for funding these projects.
Details and application from

Commonwork

Bore Place Chiddingstone, Kent TN8 7AR

info@commonwork.org  www.commonwork.org 01732 463255

Closing date for applications: 6 April 2010  - Interviews on 15 and 16 April 2010

Every thought of sharing your garden..... ?

Local food production is a central theme in developing a sustainable community. Growing your own either in an raised beds or like me in tubs can be great fun & really rewarding. But if you want to go to the next level or you dont have a garden waiting for an allotment can be frustrating.

Garden sharing is one possible option - this grew out of Totnes Transition movement and now spread to many other towns. Simply it is about matching up people with underused gardens with people who want to grow veg and spliting the produce between you. If you are interested in starting a Deal group please leave a comment here or drop us a line at dealwithittoday@yahoo.co.uk. There is also the Channel4 Landshare website which works along simpler lines at http://landshare.channel4.com/

PS: The Landmark centre in Deal has also started an allotment club -The Cleary Club Allotment Group meets every Monday and Friday 10.00am - 1.00pm. Its free to take part and you get to take home any vegetables that you grow. For more details, please call into the Landmark Centre and have a chat with Paula Moorhouse, Cleary Club Manager or give her a call on 01304 389165.

Time for Plan Bee....

The Cooperative are running a brilliant campaign on urban bee keeping in 2010. They have a petition against pesticides and are funding training & equipment to get you going as a bee keeper. As well as this they are putting another £160k in research projects on the demise of the honeybee. They even do discounted bee boxs for solitary bees!

Please sign the petition and get more info at http://www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/planbee/

Will Fidel attend Environment Exhibition?

Forget the will he/won't he rumours about Barack Obama attending The Copenhagen Climate Summit. The question that is now on everyone's lips is 'Will Fidel come to the 'Deal With It' Library Exhibition?'.

The odds are on that Fidel (Deal Library's only feline member) will not miss this exciting event, given he is a highly intelligent cat, no doubt concerned that mankind seem intent on ruining the planet not only for themselves, but for every other species too.

The exhibtion at Deal Libray starts on Saturday 19th December and runs throughout the Christmas period. Please come down and have a look at our displays and information, including what 'Deal With It' have achieved this year, activities by other local organisations as well as pointers on how you too could make 2010 a greener year.

Cat lovers who haven't read Fidel's story click here.

Recession Bites

Click on the links below to read and watch very interesting BBC articles on how the recession is affecting the way we shop for food. Do our concerns about the environment, climate change, fairtrade, health and animal welfare go out the window when times are tough?

News article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8124352.stm

TV Programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lk4cd/Money_Programme_2009_Gregg_Wallaces_Recession_Bites/

The Supermarkets - "Doing the Right Thing"?

Marks & Spencer has recently launched a national advertising campaign pushing its £200m ethical plan and chiding rivals for giving up on "fashionable" eco-policies due to the recession.

The national press and internet campaign, "Doing the Right Thing" trumpets the key tenets of its £200m five-year ethical trading initiative, called Plan A, a five-year 100-point 'eco' plan" which includes becoming carbon-neutral by 2012."It's the only way to do business," insists the company. "There is no Plan B."

The retailer said that it has achieved 39 of the 100 commitments outlined in the plan and that the £200m cost has been more than offset by savings made through policy changes relating to energy efficiency and waste.

So should we be applauding M&S and other supermarket chains as the new friends of the Earth? The environment is certainly a big seller for them and there is no doubt that these large chains can affect the buying habits of a wider public with their glossy campaigns. But can we trust them and their motives?

The slow change in attitude from the supermarkets over the decades must surely be partly thanks to consumer pressure, environmental campaigning and government legislation. However, it is also the rise of corporate social responsibility that leads many supermarkets to make claims that they are setting higher standards for themselves than any government would dare to impose through regulation. Marks and Spencer, for example, has promised to become carbon neutral and to cease sending waste to landfill by 2012, and to stop stocking any fish, wood or paper which has not been sustainably sourced. Tesco promises to attach a carbon label to all its goods. These standards, moreover, are rather higher than those the British government sets for itself. M&S has pledged to use carbon offsets (paying other people to make cuts on its behalf) only as “a last resort”.The government uses them as a first resort.

So these days, are the campaigners and the politicians redundant? Not a bit of it. The corporate social responsibilities adopted by any company are only voluntary - just because they set high standards or make lofty promises it does not necessarily follow that they will deliver on them. It must fall to the government and the public to hold retailers to account.

Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco has said that he aims to cut the distance that Tesco’s products travel, especially by air. He will also switch some of Tesco’s road freight (he did not say how much) to rail. But he said nothing about reducing the journeys made by his customers. Shopping accounts for 20% of car journeys in the UK. By closing their out-of-town stores and replacing them with warehouses and deliveries, the supermarket chains could both reduce the energy costs of their buildings and (according to government figures) cut the traffic caused by shopping by 70%.

And what of the dominance of the superstores? The Competition Commission is investigating the “land bank” accumulated by Tesco - a huge portfolio of sites on which the company appears to be sitting until it can obtain planning permission. Many of them are out of town. If Tesco develops them, it will drag even more cars onto the road. Out-of-town shopping is incompatible with sustainability.

One decision the big supermarkets will not make voluntarily is to relax their grip on local economies. It will always be harder for small businesses to work with the supermarket bullies than with the local baker or butcher; Tesco’s economy will continue to favour the big, distant supplier over the man down the road. And what of the sense of community independent small shops help to foster, which encourages people to make their friends close to home? If so-called 'love miles', those essential (emotionally at least) journeys to far-flung friends and family, are the most intractable cause of climate change, we need to start cultivating as much community spirit as we can.

In any case, shouldn't we be trying to consume less? Less is the one thing the superstores cannot sell us.

The big retailers are competing to convince us that they are greener than their rivals, and this should make us glad. But we still need governments, and we still need campaigners.

See the M&S campaign for yourself at http://plana.marksandspencer.com/

This article is a summary of a collection of articles written by George Monbiot, Fred Pearce and Mark Sweeney.

Keep It Local

A spoof Tesco ad from Friends of the Earth highlighting the destructive effect of supermarkets on local shops.