By Catherine Stott, who joined Global Link and the Closing Loops team three months ago as the new Community Cooking Coordinator
Despite the gloomy skies, intermittent downpours and gazebo-threatening gusts of wind, Friday the 12th September saw another successful FoodFutures seasonal market in the centre of Lancaster, with swing dancing as a new feature! It also marked my first market as Community Cooking Coordinator for the Closing Loops project since joining the team in June.
Closing Loops brings people together to help create an economy and food system in North Lancashire that restore – rather than deplete – the health of people, planet and the climate.
My role focuses on two main things: The first is to coordinate a series of workshops that focus on boosting people’s confidence to cook for themselves in a way that is both budget-friendly and planet-friendly. The other big part is hosting a series of community meals using locally grown, seasonal produce that’s produced in tandem with nature (or agroecologically). Those community meals are known as ‘Landed Community Kitchens’.
Alongside this job, I also work as an advisor to farmers on delivering nature restoration projects on their land. This new role with Closing Loops presented the ideal opportunity to combine my knowledge of agroecological farming with my passion for food (in all aspects) and driving community centred projects.
September’s Harvest Market was our first opportunity to promote the Landed Community Kitchens in Lancaster.
Market-goers could enjoy a bowl of tomato soup with a pudding of buckwheat pancakes and stewed apples at our pop-up diner (which miraculously held up in 36mph wind gusts). It was all served at a ‘pay as you can’ rate.
This was the first in a series of sit-down community meals, so keep a look out for further information on the FoodFutures website and social media channels.
September’s Harvest Feast celebration at Kanteena has been the highlight of my new role so far. Individuals each brought their own dish to create a delicious spread of seasonally-inspired food.
Seeing people come together, chatting and laughing over food, captured a key aim of the Landed Community Kitchens project – providing social connection and bringing communities together in open and inclusive spaces.
More than anything, these first three months have demonstrated the wealth of grassroots action that is already in motion to reshape Lancaster’s food system and strengthen communities, and I’m really excited to build on this momentum.
