Growing community with RMUK

Growing community with RMUK

The Rastafari Movement UK Health and Wellbeing Centre provide food and support to anyone nearby who needs it. Based in Downham, Sister Stella and her team run a social supermarket stocked with fresh, healthy, and home-grown foods.

Lewisham is home to one of the biggest Afro-Caribbean populations in the country. RMUK are especially proud to stock culturally relevant foods for our communities, from yams, ochre, and their own chillies picked from the garden.

With support from the Repair, Reuse, Recycle Grant, the centre upcycled wooden pallets into herb planters, and an outdoor seating area. By using old materials creatively, they have transformed the small garden space into a welcoming haven, and memorial area to honour their founder in.

Gardens can support both wellbeing and climate action, helping lower temperatures in the summer, and providing better air quality. Growing fresh herbs on a balcony or small outdoor space can save money from buying in the supermarket and reduce plastic packaging waste.

Looking to the future, RMUK are planning to employ local young people to install solar panels on their roof. These would save them money on their energy bills, power fridges for donated food and support their research into solar-grown plants. Their aim is to produce more foods from the Global South, locally. This would help locals to eat healthily, cut down on air miles, and create new community knowledge and skills.