By Amalie Meland
Hilldrop Community Centre is taking part in Islington Food Week, serving a free hot lunch to around 40 people. The Food Week is part of the Islington Food Partnership‘s launch of the Islington Food Strategy 2023-2028.
“Sometimes we get a fantastic food surplus and can cook the whole meal out of it, but now not so much. But I mean this, we are looking at £20 cost here for almost 40 people, that’s incredible isn’t it?” said Elaine Maffrett, 55, the Community Centre’s head.
Islington Food Partnership consists of a combination of local organisations and individuals working together to build a better local food system for Islington. Elaine Maffrett is one of them.
According to her, Islington Food Week is about the environment, it’s about access to healthy food, it’s about knowing where the food comes from and if it is locally produced.
“It’s about people having access to healthy food. You know if you live on your own and cook up a lasagne, you can be heating it up for four days, and it won’t be that cheap. So it’s cheaper to buy a ready meal or processed food.”
Photos by Amalie Meland
Tsigereda Tekletsadik and Primrose Christie, network developers at Octopus Community Network, were alsoat the lunch.
“The reason we are here today is the food week, and Octopus as a network developer, we are here to support Hilldrop,” said Tekletsadik.
“We run a listening campaign to find out what people are thinking about the cost of living, the food insecurity, and the food poverty since it is a food week.”
Outside Food Week, Octopus work with 15 of Islington’s largest community centres, which all have a community food hub program, supporting the residents in different activities including everything from cooking sessions, growing food, foodbanks and free lunches.
“That is happening all the time because we are healthy and shaping programs so that we can close the inequality in Islington,” she said.
Added Christie: “We don’t call it food bank but food hub because lockdown is gone but the food issue is still there, and the cost of living hasn’t made it any easier.”
Maffrett started a lunch club at the community centre before Covid. “It was an environmental need and also trying to introduce people to more vegetarian cooking and getting them away from meat and constantly talking about the environment and the impact of producing food.”
But when Covid came the focus shifted, it wasn’t about the environment any more but about people actually being able to get food.
After the Covid restrictions were relaxed in march, 2022, the community centre could go back to what it was originally doing: bringing people together to eat healthy food.
“We got back to doing a cooked meal where people would come in and eat together, and that’s very successful.”
They started a new group last Wednesday at called Creative Dinners for families to learn to cook together, involving both parents and children.
“The aim is to get parents to prepare food with their children, so we got a lot of special knives, we got a banana cutter, so a three-year-old could use. Because as a parent, it is confidence to give your child a knife and ask them to prepare the carrots,” said Maffrett.
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