‘It’s not that I can’t let it go… but it’s still there,’ Aneita tells me. It’s hard to shift the memory of not knowing how to make ends meet. ‘I’m not rich, I’m not absolutely poor, but – you know – I’m there, kind of lingering, in that in-between place.’
But ‘lingering’ doesn’t do justice to Aneita’s energy and activism. A single mother and mature student who has personally experienced food poverty, she’s part of the Blueprint Architects group – residents, growers and food justice organizers in Tower Hamlets, East London. Most members of the group are from working-class, Global South diaspora and migration backgrounds. Over the last two years they have joined forces to research a low-carbon, socially just urban food system. This feels crucial, in a deprived borough where hardship and inequality is compounded by environmental hazards such as heavy road pollution.
‘It’s about working out how communities can take back the power to sustain ourselves,’ she says. It’s a vision of abundance and choice – enough fresh, affordable, sustainable food for everyone – and reclaiming space
