Pop Up Restaurant at the Goldsmiths AGM

What were they looking at? 

Pop Up Veg!

The Allotments Learning Project (London Action Trust) and local families have been cultivating an area of the community centre, growing vegetables such as potatoes, beans, onions, celery and even mooli radish. Every week the plants get bigger and we look forward to a tasting session!

Use Your Loaf at the Pop Up Cafe

Centre users, families and voters visited the third Pop Up Cafe on 6 May to try some different breads, baked, bought in and made on the spot! Lovingly crafted by hand and baked in a flowerpot or made with mathematical precision in a breadmaker the results were judged to be terrific. Here are some comments:
"What a wonderful selection with many different ideas to take away and try"
"Most enjoyable - lovely tasting bread of all kinds. Please could you do this more often, with recipes?"
"This is wonderful I think we all should learn how to be creative in baking tasty bread"
"The homemade bread without gluten ingredient is excellent. Tastes very healthy and tastes a lot more of the other ingredients - have taken my own portion home with me"

Use Your Loaf was devised and led by Downham Nutrition Partnership's Ruth Webber and the Limelight's Tiny Rumbletums session (families with under 5s) also did a breadmaking session, producing pizza, olive and herb breads.

We had many requests to run breadmaking demonstrations and workshops so watch this space! We hope that Le Pain Quotidien, who supplied the walnut (most popular) and sourdough breads, will agree to sponsor this or a future event at the centre.

The next PopUp Cafe will be on 22 June to coincide with Goldsmiths Community Association Annual General Meeting.

Pop Up Cafe makes its 2nd appearance

Another successful cafe event was held on Saturday 19 April at the Limelight 10th Anniversary Fun Day. A great collaboration between Limelight and Goldsmiths meant that families could not only enjoy healthy snacks in the Food Place - and outside in the sunshine! - but make their own dessert afterwards at a trifle-making workshop.

Our next event is Use Your Loaf on 6 May - yes, we know what day it is... from 1-7 pm in the Food Place to celebrate Real Bread week. We'll be offering free tastings of different breads, how to make bread including using that breadmaker that's been stuck in the cupboard for the past year! Refreshments and cakes are £1.

Welcome to the PopUp Cafe!

The PopUp Cafe was launched at Equinox, the North Downham Community Festival on 19-20 March.

The former creche was transformed into a sunny, bright cafe serving healthy snacks provided by Feast Your Eyes and fruit by Aldi!

This is Equinox as realised by our very own aerosol artists under the guidance of Mark Davis.

The Food Place - update on the brief and our expectations

We now have a model of the Food Place and some fine graphics and photos to get our message across! We need to tell the story and to identify a bottom line in terms of what we can do plus a vision and wish list. We could use architects who have been involved with the centre before; ask some of the cafes and places we have visited which professionals they used; find someone sympathetic to working with community groups and will engage with the process and use local networks.

I read 'Inclusion by Design' which is produced by CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and was impressed by what it said about inclusive design.

Think about how a place will work in the future, what it will look like, what it will feel like, how people will use it and how will it be different from other places. The impact of bad design is more likely to be felt by disabled people and older people, people from minority cultures and faiths, carers with young children ... The management and use of places have a significant effect on whether we find them friendly and welcoming, and whether they generate a sense of belonging. 

·         a place that is affordable

·         a place that isn’t stuffy

·         a place that you can use with dignity and free from anxiety

·         a place where you aren’t talked down to

·         a place where you can linger if you want to

·         a place you can get home from safely

·         a programme that stimulates your interest

·         management that knows that comfort is important

·         management that uses up-to-date technology to maximise participation

 

Buildings by Design and Food Place update

Loscinia, Ruth and I went on the Buildings by Design course at Hackney City Farm on 24 & 25 February. This amazing course was run by the Glasshouse Trust, who have helped us over the past few months to shape our ideas for the Food Place.

More later...