Recently Helen and Simon, our Food Bus team members, visited Granville Community Kitchen in South Kilburn to learn more about their model of providing affordable and nutritious food to the community.
GCK have been pioneering a self-sustaining model that promotes food sovereignty, which is the right of everyone to healthy food produced sustainably. In this type of food system, the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution, instead of corporations. GCK seek to find local solutions to national problems by operating three projects: a bi-weekly Community Meal, a Community Garden, and the Good Food Box project.
The team’s visit to GCK focused on the Good Food Box – a fruit and vegetable bag scheme with produce sourced directly from farmers. Each bag contains information on where the items were sourced, and a short introduction on each farmer. By sourcing directly from farmers, the “middleman” is removed, meaning the food is fresher, and farmers get paid fairly. All food bags also contain two additional vegetables from Northern European, or African-Caribbean heritage. GCK hope to develop this plan, adding more culturally appropriate foods in the future.
The Good Food Box works on an honesty system where customers pay what they can afford within a “sliding scale”. A small vegetable bag which typically feeds one person ranges from £3.10 per week (the most affordable price on the scale), to £10.88p/w for the solidarity price. To produce bags at the more affordable end of the scale, GCK rely on people who can pay more than this to do so, or pay the full solidarity price. This idea is known as “paying it forward” and prioritises reinvesting in local people for the good of the whole community. The Good Food Box also accepts healthy start vouchers.
Here at Be Enriched, we love what Granville Community Kitchen are doing and would strongly recommend you give them a follow on social media or find out more about the great work they are doing in Kilburn.
Instagram / Twitter: @grancomkitchen
Written by Helen Fielding
Edited by Mia Furlong
