Manchester Friends of the Earth have been nominated for Friends of the Earth's "Earthmovers" award for the second year in succession. The group won an Earthmovers award last year for their work on sustainable transport with the residents of Longsight which culminated in the setting up of the Longsight Transport Working Group, part of the ALL community network. This year's nomination is for the launch of the Manchester Real Food Guide website which gives details of where to find organic, GM-free, locally sourced, Fairly Traded and vegetarian foods in the Manchester area. Ali Abbas commented, "It's great news for the group and for the effectiveness of our campaigning to be recognised on a national stage like this for the second year in a row. We are currently embarking on a major expansion of the website and are adding more content and coverage all the time. If anyone wants to help promoting Real Food in Manchester they should get in touch!"
As part of the ongoing People's History Museum "Butties to Bhajis" exhibition, Manchester FoE ran an event at the beginning of September to promote their Real Food Guide and to raise awareness about the connections between food and the environment. Their competitions went down well, with people struggling to guess the origin of various fruits and vegetables. The chocolate contest, see above photo, was popular for some reason! (Maybe because of the free chocolate?) Winners Sarah and Jadie demonstrated skill in being able to recognise the fair trade credentials of ten different types of chocolates - without seeing the wrapper. The online Real Food Guide was close at hand, and visitors made use of it to locate real food shops near them.
The group has also been awarded significant NRF funding to run a high profile information campaign about sustainable transport - more next month!
Ali, Manchester FoE (0161 834 8221, ali@manchesterfoe.org.uk)
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