🚌 Community Trips Through Summer and Autumn

Over the last season, we have organised 3 community trips, bringing 30 community members to the farm site, with Tom and Zarah from our Advisory Group also joining us along the way. We had an absolutely joyful time wandering the land, exploring the forest and feeling more connected to the future community farm. Everything is becoming more tangible now.

We’d love to let these lovely photographs charm you and bring a little of that delight to you!

🪵 A Weekend in the Woods

At the beginning of July, the GCK team spent a lovely weekend camping in the woodland next to our farm site.

A big thank you to Calum for cooking the most delicious oxtail and potato stew, slow-cooked over the fire overnight, as well as charcoal-grilled burgers and a fresh vegetarian salad. We all felt a little spoilt having such a feast while camping!
We met the Cherries and friends from Groundschool, wandered around the land and spent time chatting. Thanks to Dhelia for capturing these lovely moments.

🌱 Sowing the Green Manures on the Farm

With the kind help of our farm landlord, John, we have sown green manure on the farm site in September to protect the soil over winter and capture valuable nutrients before heavy rains wash them away. The seeds have brought the land back to life, turning it green and lively again after the summer heat.

📷 John's team is helping sowing the green manures with a cultivator

🌱 Our First Good Food Ecologies Supporter Gathering

On 6 October 2026, we welcomed 14 supporters to our future Farm Hub for our first supporter gathering, sharing our vision for Good Food Ecologies and how the Farm Hub is the next step in bringing that vision to life.

The morning was filled with curiosity, thoughtful questions and lively conversations as we walked together to Bullocks Pasture and explored what the future farm could become. After an absolutely delicious vegan feast from Seed of Wild, we took time to reflect on walking the land and feeling grounded in the soil.

📷 ©️ Robert Logan

In the afternoon, supporters imagined and designed their own farms through an interactive game, exploring what we could build together and reflecting on how a better food system can grow through sharing, mutual support and collective action. Naomi Rubbra from Footwork then guided us through a harvest of reflections, inviting everyone to consider what they would carry from the day into their own lives and work.

We ended on a particularly touching note, hearing from Stephanie Morren from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Tom Spens from Reaching Communities Funding about their experiences of working with us over the past two years. We’re deeply grateful for their trust and support along the way, as we continue to sow the seeds of the Farm Hub together. 💚

A heartfelt thank you to all the GCK staff who joined us and supported the day, Naomi for generously sharing her time and offering invaluable guidance on facilitation, and Groundschool for generously offering us their classroom and joining us for the day. And, of course, a huge shout-out to Keke and Bejay from Seed of Wild for nourishing both our bodies and hearts with their incredible food.

✊ Save the Rec: We’re Still Fighting!

We have had a lot of momentum on our Campaign to Save the Rec.

In early July, Leslie went to speak to the full Brent Council meeting with about 25 community members. We made a good impression, as the following Wednesday quite a few Councillors came to the Rec. ITN news also saw a Wembley Matters article about the campaign and filmed for a couple of hours. The piece went out that day on the 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock news.

📺 ITV News about the Rec

The following week Cllr Kulcher, head of Regeneration for Brent Council, as well as other Councillors, came to speak with us at the Rec. Despite the holiday period, many residents wrote to Cllr Kulcher and Brent Council expressing their horror at building on such a biodiverse old-growth small park. Cllr Kulcher has replied with the Council's arguments for the change of use of the space. We have written a reply that will be on the website very soon.

📷 Save The Rec: Garden Open Day in September

On 19 September, we organised a Save the Rec: Garden Open Day to update the community on the campaign and discuss what we can do collectively as we prepare for the next steps, while the developer selection process is still ongoing.

Around 50 people joined us on the day, and 31 residents signed the reply letter to the Cllr. Kids harvested chard, Italian kale, squashes and tomatoes to take home. It was wonderful to see people enjoying the garden and recognising the value and preciousness of this little oasis surrounded by concrete.

Please sign the petition and share it with your friends, if you haven‘t already done so.

Keeping checking the website for news of the campaign!
https://granvillecommunitykitchen.org.uk/community/save-the-rec/
Thank you so much!

🍳 Cooking Class at Lonsdale Medical Centre!

Earlier in the year, the Good Food Box received funding from Brent Health Matters to work on a social prescribing project with Lonsdale Medical Centre in Queen’s Park. The project is focused on tackling diet-related illnesses, food insecurity, and social isolation through providing local patients with free bags of organic, locally grown produce. We have one group of eight folks receiving weekly GFB bags for ten weeks this side of Christmas and another group of ten to fifteen starting mid-January – spots are still available for this 2027 group if you’re a Lonsdale patient!

To make sure our participants are well equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to cook regularly with beautiful fresh fruit and veg, Riham and Alex ran a budget-friendly cooking workshop. We developed three healthy, balanced meals with help from Lonsdale’s dietician, Rachele: a black bean chilli, a quick mixed vegetable curry, and a roasted root veg salad with grains, feta, and citrus dressing.

It was fantastic to have several patients attend, as well as a few of Lonsdale’s GPs and medical students, to talk about food memories, share culturally diverse recipes, and understand more about food as (preventative) medicine!

💥 GCK and Imagining Food Futures (What IFF?)

This September 12th, Alex, our coordinator of the Good Food Box, and her collaborator Josie Major ran a free, creative cooking workshop at Penfold Age Well Center in Marylebone, in partnership with the not-for-profit Showroom Gallery. Alex and Josie have recently relaunched their project Imagining Food Futures (What IFF?), which facilitates playful and educational food and art activities for hopeful futures.

Preview Preserves is the first offering from IFF – they’re partnering with art galleries across London to make seasonal chutneys, syrups, jams, pickles, and jellies with galleries’ wider communities. This time they used a huge bucket of green tomatoes from the Granville Rec urban garden, along with onions, garlic, and ginger from the Good Food Box, to make 30+ jars of spiced green tomato chutney, along with 12 bottles of delicious, coconutty fig leaf syrup.

📷 Creative cooking workshop at Penfold Age Well Centre

Workshop participants learned essential budget cooking skills, shared cultural recipes, and then took home their preserves to add flavour to their favourite meals throughout autumn. Excess went to The Showroom, who then nourished their latest exhibition preview attendees with the stories and tastes of the neighbourhood they practice in.

It's all about breaking down financial barriers to nutritious, delicious food while simultaneously addressing social barriers to arts spaces, which can often feel intimidating and exclusive!

🫑 Queen's Park Day: Sharing Good Food, Growing Solidarity

Our Good Food Box and Farm Hub projects joined Queen’s Park Day to share fresh, seasonal vegetables and talk about what good food means to Granville Community Kitchen. From making fresh produce more accessible to building solidarity and connecting urban communities with agroecological farming, our projects are part of a wider movement towards a more just and sustainable food system.

📷 Good Food Box and the Farm Hub projects stall

🥬 Good Food Box at St Luke’s Church Farmers Markets – Oct 3rd, the Last Market for 2026!

This year, the Good Food Box team has been loving catching up with the GCK and wider South Kilburn community at the St Luke’s farmers markets, which happen on the first Saturday of each month. We’ve been showing off the spring and summer abundance coming out of the rec/urban garden – huge piles of kale, all kinds of herbs, and lots of courgettes and tomatoes.

See you all next spring.

📷 Fresh vegs from the Granville Rec Garden

🚈 Getting ROOTED in Brussels

We're really excited to have started a new 3-year research project called ROOTED with the Centre of Agroecology Water and Resilience(https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/areas-of-research/agroecology-water-resilience/) that has received EU Horizon funding. The project involves 27 partners across Europe working together to co-create community kitchens as neighbourhood social infrastructure for more resilient and just food systems. The partners will explore how to connect community kitchens with agroecological food producers to build good food economies.

📷 Photos from the trip in Brussels

We were excited to meet our partners in Brussels this week. Leslie and Rob visited 5 food projects in the neighbourhood of Forest - VRAC, Foyer du Sud, TAF Service, No Javel, and La Voisnerie. These ranged from: a community allotment, a cooperative purchasing good food at cost price, a food bank, and a community kitchen. It was inspiring to see all these different food initiatives within walking distance to each other and hear more about their working in collaboration to build an equitable neighbourhood food system. We are looking forward to sharing more about what we're learning and planning to do as part of the research project.

🚌 Community Trip to Southend

On 20 August, nearly 50 residents and 3 GCK staff went to Southend for a great day out!

We had delicious fish and chips, and then most of us had ice cream, went on the pier- the longest pleasure pier in the world! We even had a paddle in the sea. What a fantastic day!

Thank you Vistry/Countryside Community Chest.

📷 Photo from the day

🌳 Planting an Apple Tree in Memory of Joe

In July we planted a Cox’s Orange Pippin apple tree in the Rec in memory of our dear friend Joe Mcabe. He loved the Rec and always said that moving compost was his job only! We were joined by lots of friends from St Luke’s church and others who wanted to remember him.

📷 Old friends from St. Luke’s church are putting soil for the tree

🌳 Team Visit to Knepp

On 17 August, GCK had its annual outing to visit Knepp, a pioneering rewilding project in Sussex (https://knepp.co.uk/). We had a wonderful picnic, a fantastic tour of their market garden and loved discovering their revamped old farm buildings.

📷 Day visit to Knepp

🌳 Farewell Hannah, Welcome Alfie

🗓️ Time: Saturday 31 October afternoon
📍 Place: Granville Rec community garden, NW6 5AR (or Granville Road Play Area on Google Maps).

As the 2026 growing season comes to an end, let’s gather at Granville Rec to tuck our garden into bed for winter and nurture the soil for next year’s growth.

Join us for an afternoon of seasonal activities, including

Come celebrate the season and care for our garden together!

🗓️ Time: 5–7 pm on the first Wednesday of each month
📍 Place: St Luke’s Church, Fernhead Road, West Kilburn, London W9 3EH

Come along on the first Wednesday of each month for our second-hand clothes event with The Regarm Projects! Give pre-loved clothes a new home and help keep clothes in use for longer. 💚

Follow The Regarm Porjects on Instagram: @theregarmprojects

🗓️ Dates & Time: Tuesday 20 October, 10am-5pm

📍 Location: Metroland Cultures, 91 Kilburn Square, London, NW6 6PS (Behind the Kilburn Market)

Vibrent is bringing Brent’s creative community together for a day exploring how artists, cultural organisations and communities can contribute to a greener borough.

Expect hands-on workshops, artist talks, local projects and practical ideas, with plenty of opportunities to meet fellow creatives, share experiences and make new connections.

There’ll also be delicious plant-based food provided by Shambhu’s, Brent’s award-winning vegan catering company!

Our co-founder Leslie will join Katie Mills and Katie Pascoe for a panel discussion on “The Power of Community Green Spaces (and How to Start Your Own)”, sharing insights into the value of community green spaces and how we can create more of them.

Places are limited. Please book your free ticket below!

Our last community meal of 2026 will be on Wednesday 16 December.

We’ll be taking a little winter break and will be back on Wednesday 6 January 2027.

Thank you for sharing meals and lovely moments with us this year. 💚

🥕 Want a weekly organic veg bag?

Get fresh, seasonal produce grown by small-scale growers across the UK and Europe — plus veggies straight from NW6!

Over the years, we’ve received generous donations from people who chose to stay anonymous. If this was you, we would love to hear from you so we can say a proper THANK YOU 🧡! Please feel free to contact info@granvillecommunitykitchen.org.uk.
Your support truly means a lot to us.