The aim has always been to develop these B2E "local community food" Projects into a permanent social enterprise with steering committees of local people and using more and more "locally" produced food - some of which will be grown in the B2E Community Gardens by our third Project, B2E Education, Green Skills Training and Volunteering which started Community Gardening and Green Gym workshops in September 2009.
Apart from 2 staff, the session tutors and some accreditation costs, we have run this B2E Pilot Programme almost completely on a voluntary basis, with minimal staffing and premises costs mainly due to our partners, Broadwater Farm Community Centre, offering services free for the pilot period. We have kept prices for food and meals to a minimum and we are now seeking to fund a more permanent sustainable future for the B2E Farm Community Café as a full time social enterprise.
Creighton Road allotments
We have also run Healthy Food Workshops for local community groups; cooked healthy meals for young footballers at the Centre's Football Academy during half-term holidays; put on Christmas parties and ran outings to Kew Gardens and nearby farms for local kids. With the Community Kitchen we are committed to offering affordable fresh, healthy sustainable food - local and organic where possible - at prices that local people can afford. But as we also aim to be sustainable, so a happy medium has to be found. All our catering training is offered free to our trainees and volunteers.
Creighton Road allotments
The success of the initial B2Epilot projects, regularly enjoyed by hundreds of local people, was followed by further funding from the L B Haringey "Making the Difference" Fund to run a 2nd and 3rd pilot programme of the Farm Community Kitchen and Food Co-ops through to the end of March 2009. Then we had a further award in 2009/10 to start our pilot Community Gardening and Local Food Growing Projects. The Pilot Projects still gather support and momentum and inform how we set up the proposed permanent Farm Community Cafe and Community Gardens.
