Melting Pot: Communal cooking and climate conversations at The Hidden Gardens
Community, climate and creativity come together in Govanhill’s new sustainability focused event at The Hidden Gardens. Local groups united over a shared meal and goals to tackle climate risks in Glasgow’s first Net Zero Neighbourhood.
Words and photos by Devon McCole | Illustrations by Rosie @illustrationetc
Glasgow City Council recently announced Govanhill as Glasgow’s first ever Net Zero Neighbourhood, and with a growing community of social enterprises in Govanhill, it’s no wonder.
Among the many social enterprises that operate out of, or work with, Govanhill and the wider Southside, are a number of green-orientated organisations and initiatives aimed at improving the lives of local people, whilst also tackling issues relating to climate change and sustainability.
On Thursday Rags to Riches - a lead member of Glasgow Action Climate Hub - invited partner groups making a difference to the local area to The Boilerhouse in The Hidden Gardens for a brand new climate networking event with a twist.
Greater Govanhill joined community connectors and representatives from local groups like South Seeds, Govanhill Community Development Trust, Dress for Success, Daisy Chain Early Years, Merry-go-Round and YCSA got together to discuss ways in which they could work closer together to achieve their shared climate goals.
Lauren Hooper, the project manager at Rags to Riches said: “We're following the Disco Soup model, which means we are using surplus food which would otherwise be wasted, to make a meal together as we discuss future projects.
“We're saving five kilograms of food waste from the People’s Pantry today, to provide that nourishment that is needed to sustain community connections. We thought it would be a great idea to cook a meal together as we discuss ways to collaborate.”
Also in attendance was Eleanor White from Culture for Climate, a national charity exploring the role of creativity in climate transformations. Eleanor led conversations around current climate orientated projects, the potential for collaboration, to help the room identify areas locally that are considered ‘climate risks’ and how they could be collectively tackled.
Ahead of the event, Eleanor shared with us her hopes and expected outcomes following the discussions: “ Today we'll go through a journey of, at first, mapping the shared resources we have in the room, whether that's specific knowledge about composting or recycling clothes.
“From there we'll map specific climate risks; things that have been felt and experienced by the communities that the organisations are working with, like flooding or specific heat islands. We want to work out how we can collaboratively come together to imagine what future projects might look like.”
Eva Camille Harrold was also in attendance in her never-done-before role as Rags to Riches’ Environmental Area Coordinator. The attendees chopped vegetables together as they discussed their on-going and up-coming projects. After the veg was chopped, whilst Eva cooked the meal in the Kitchen, attendees used maps of the local area to identify climate risks.
Among some of the risks identified were carelessly dumped bulk waste, some of which could potentially be repurposed or removed, the lack of proper food waste collection in the area and the lack of trees in Govanhill, and more.
After some in-depth planning and swapping of details among some participants who identified ways to support each other on specific initiatives, all those in attendance ate together.
It was a lively and engaging event which is expected to run again in the future. It was the perfect opportunity for local organisations to pin down their various ideas and work together on them in order to tackle the issues that matter to the community the most as we transition towards becoming a more sustainable, community-orientated neighbourhood.
The illustrations in this article were drawn up live during yesterdays event as conversations unfolded and are courtesy of Rosie from @illustrationetc
