What OCC does around food can be central in many ways. There is a Technology and an Art to food that is often not emphasised to the extent that it should be. Food can also be the table around which we come for Dialogue and Reflection and also Storytelling. This is especially so in an exuberantly diverse borough like Newham and for a visibly diverse community-organisation (comOrg), not apologising for the neologism, like OCC.
I will be at this event, though at some point I will probably break out to hold satsang at the local pub (just kidding (about satsang (maybe))). The barbeque is being held at the back of Memorial Community Church and several of my family members will be there as my wife works with Rose as part of the OCC community.
It presents a good opportunity to meet up in person if anyone is free. I’ve known Rose for some time and in 2023 to 2024 worked with her on two projects – ‘Caring Caring Conscious Creative Community Online’ and its successor ‘Newham Mosaic’. Both were funded short term but when the funding ran out I decided to keep Newham Mosaic going on the ‘a puppy is not just for Christmas principle’ The Newham Mosaic project continues its work with the website here and through the STEAM DREAMS and other WhatsApp groups.
The Memorial Community Church is an iconic building close to Plaistow Police Station on Barking Road and worth having a look at in its own right but Rose’s OCC is also worth supporting as it has been doing excellent and under-supported work for years providing now only a food bank and food club run by what has been called a diverse community of ‘aunties and nannas’, but that community itself as a locus of collective purpose.