Food Connect - Coming soon to the Eco-Library

Last week we met the lovely Julian of Food Connect, who stopped by to talk to us about his social enterprise. Here's what he had to say;

"Food Connect Sydney aims to make ethically grown food from local farmers accessible to any household in Sydney. Food Connect Sydney buys direct from local organic and chemical free farmers and packs it into three sized boxes — $35–$65. 

These are then delivered to a local host or "City Cousin" where subscribers come once a week to pick up their pre-paid box.

Fruit and Veg from Food Connect supports farming and local communities as it is:

Fair : 40c in every dollar goes back to the farmer
Organic : 100% of the produce is certified organic or chemical free
Local : average food miles of around 250km
Direct : over 90% of the produce is bought direct from the farmer
Community driven : Local communities come together at their City Cousin

Food Connect Sydney is based on award winning Food Connect Brisbane who have been trading for over six years. Food Connect Sydney’s Enterprise Coordinator was recently recognised as the Sydney Social Entrepreneur of the Year. "



Food Connect Sydney also offers a wholesale service, and supply our good friends over at Alfalfa House. Alfalfa are as excited as we are for The Bower to be extending the number of resources and services available to residents interested in living locally and minimising their environmental impact.

Starting Wednesday 11th May 1-7pm, you'll be able to pick up your pre-paid boxes of produce from our Eco-Library.

Alfalfa House recently loaned their collection of cookbooks to the Eco-Library, so you'll find a host of convenient references to help you decide on tasty recipes for your fresh produce each week. Before long you'll find our Eco-Library has a wealth of information on related topics, including living locally, organic and chemical free gardening and much, much more.

Our hope is that before long, you won't just drop in to pick up your vegies, but stay for a cuppa and a chat with some of the other like minded subscribers.

SO! Checkout  http://www.foodconnect.com.au to find the answers to any lingering questions, sign up to test out the service and organise your subscription payment.

Reuse Repair and Recycle Furniture Course

Workshops, workshops workshops!

We've been hard at work trying to figure out how we can give you what you want!
The second part of the solution involves cloning ourselves, so we'll leave that (and the ethics discussion) for another post, but the first part of the solution is Bower staff getting skilled up in timber repair and finishing ourselves!

To achieve that, and meet some of our other objectives including community education of reuse and repair, we've buddied up with our new best friends - TAFE Outreach.

Outreach at ultimo are dedicated to tailoring courses specifically to meet community needs, providing pathways into social enterprises for people from all walks of life. They're also working with PLACE, a 2 year program concerned with people learning skills towards social enterprises - giving people pathways to employment and financial independence as well as opportunities to socialise and learn new skills.

Over the coming weeks, The Bower staff will be working with TAFE and a TAFE appointed tutor, learning new skills and working with other participants, learning about teaching, mentoring and community engagement.

The aim is for participants to have a taste of furniture restoration and timber work, and for the group to produce a number of pieces that exhibit their new skills, their creativity and passion - all through items donated by The Bower. We hope that some student will discover a true passion for furniture restoration, and that our staff will discover a passion for teaching!

We can't wait for class to resume after the easter holidays, and to show you some of our work in progress.

Once we're skilled up we'll be able to increase the range of workshops we offer to you!