A group of Bengali women want to set up their own food-growing project after being inspired by a community garden in London.
The Moulsecoomb Bangladeshi Women’s Group visited The Coriander Club, a gardening and cookery club for older generation Bengali women at Spitalfields City Farm near Shoreditch to learn how to set their own allotment up.
The women travelled to the garden with Hove-based community development charity Trust for Developing Communities (TDC), which secured the funding from East Brighton Trust.
They met The Coriander Club’s founder Lutfun Hussain, who set it up in 2000 to help tackle her homesickness, to learn about how the project operates and how it benefits the local Bangladeshi community.
Mishruna Kibria, who was born and lives in Brighton and is the co-ordinator of the Moulsecoomb Bangladeshi Women’s Group, said: “It is fantastic, it’s a charity not a business, a charity vegetable garden in the middle of the city. For the women in our group to see all the traditional vegetables from Bangladesh is amazing.
“If we could pull off something like this in Moulsecoomb it would be something so incredible and important, people would come to visit us.”
Ratna Jan Bibi, TDC community development worker for black and minority ethnic wellbeing, said: “I came across The Coriander Club four years ago by chance and I thought it was amazing how they grow native vegetables which are difficult to find in the UK, and people come to the garden especially to buy their organic food.
“There is a lack of services for ethnic minority residents of Brighton and Hove and a garden would provide a safe space for them to grow vegetables from all over the world and learn from each other.
“After the summer break I am sure we will have more conversations and with funding, anything is possible.”
Source: Bengali women want to start their own food-growing project
