Members of the Parks and Countryside Team, Environmental Health Team and the ‘Hearty Lives’ group here at Carrickfergus have recently set up a Food Forum. I am pleased to be a member to strengthen the link between health, food growing and our allotments here. The Food Forum was recently approved by Council and the vision agreed upon – ‘Enabling all our communities to make healthy cost effective food choices by enhancing skills and promoting nutrition and local cultivation’. I was asked to design a logo for the Forum and this is what I came up with. It incorporates the original Carrickfergus Council logo of the castle and the waves, but the image is changed to represent sustainable food and food growing – thought it was a pretty good effort!
I also organized a trip to Cloughmills for the Food Forum members and members of interested community groups including the Carrickfergus Community Cultivators. The aim of this trip was to learn from the Cloughmills Community Action Team (CCAT) who have successfully developed the ‘Incredible Edible Cloughmills’ project which reconnects people with each other, their community and the natural world through the language of food. The CCAT team are doing amazing work and have won loads of awards. More information at – https://www.facebook.com/CloughmillsCAT
The trip was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and we took away loads of ideas and inspiration.
One of the first events we arranged through the Food Forum was a Grow It! Demonstration which we held for a womens group on the 5th June. The aim was to educate the group on growing their own to improve their health. Members of the group admitted that athough they had a keen interest in growing their own they did not know where to begin. The women were also very keen to learn new skills so they could involve their children – one women actually brought her son along which was great. We provided plants and herbs for the group to taste and then showed the group how to plant their own pots. The group planted spearmint, rocket, radish, carrots and more. It was a very educational day and everyone went away enthused by the demonstration. I have high hopes that the women will become committed home growers and pass the knowledge on to their family. We will be holding a follow up session to hear how they are getting on and answer any questions, and after the success of the first demo we are hoping to run more over the summer.
