This is the 'most thoughtful and inspiring' food project celebrity chef Levi Roots has ever seen

Sistah Stella Headley first had the idea for a food hub when she was facing homelessness in 2017. She had reached a level of poverty where she was counting the number of cookies in her fridge and calculating when she could have another piece so she would have enough food for the day.

Eight years later, she is changing the lives of people experiencing homelessness and food poverty, and has launched a groundbreaking food and wellbeing hub in Downham, in Lewisham, South London, which will combat injustice, poverty and health inequalities.

“For me it’s about food, but it’s also about wellbeing and caring for each other. We deliver what we deliver with love and kindness. I know what it’s like to be homeless. I know what it’s like to be hungry. With all the experiences I’ve had, it allows me to be compassionate in the work I do. I can give people hope, and they can teach me as well,” Headley says.

Downham has a rich and diverse community with more than 6,000 residents, but it is classified as a ‘food desert’. That means it’s an area where access to fresh food is sparse, with few local shops selling a wide range of foods or catering to different diets and cultures.

Communities in areas such as Downham are disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis, rising social isolation and increasing food poverty.

“I knew this area because I was born in Lewisham,” Headley says. “I realised it had changed and had become so diverse, and there were probably no support services for cultural food.”

The INI Food and Wellbeing Centre was launched in January by Rastafari Movement UK alongside Action Against Hunger. ‘INI’ comes from the Rastafari phrase “I and I”, which implies a unity between people.

At the heart of the project is a social supermarket, which will offer fresh and healthy food at a rate of £4 per fortnight. It also has a fruit and vegetable garden, workshops and social spaces where people can learn skills and financial resilience, and advocacy services for community members facing isolation. 

People will find friendship as well as support at the INI Food and Wellbeing Centre.

“A project like this brings a heartbeat back to the community, transforming hunger, hardship and isolation into resilience and connection,” Headley says.

She volunteered for the Rastafari Movement UK while she was facing homelessness and poverty, and through that she became involved with FareShare, which saves surplus food from going to waste and distributes it to those in need. She got a job at the charity and learnt to drive a forklift and coordinate the warehouse, but an injury forced her to leave.

A group approached her from Deptford and asked if she would help run a social supermarket, selling good food which would otherwise have gone to waste to people facing food poverty in the community.

Headley then founded Rastafari Movement UK Wellbeing, which delivers culturally-relevant food and wellbeing support projects that combat food injustice. 

And when she discovered a derelict building in Downham, a former school hidden behind overgrown bushes and inhabited by foxes, and she saw the size of the space, she started to “fantasise” about the possibilities of a food and wellbeing hub.

“We saw this derelict building and it took two years to negotiate,” Headley says. “Action Against Hunger said they could help us with legal costs. If we didn’t have that help, we wouldn’t be here today. They gave us the funding to renovate the place.”

It has taken years and now it is finally here, Headley admits she is overwhelmed by people’s excitement. “There’s a little bit of fear, because I have to sustain it,” she says, but she is determined and has plans for the INI Food and Wellbeing Centre to grow and find new ways of supporting people into the future.

At the launch event, celebrity chef Levi Roots – who rose to fame after successfully pitching his Reggae Reggae sauce on Dragons Den – was a special guest. 

Before he cut the ribbon to declare the INI Food and Wellbeing Centre officially open, he said has visited many food banks and community projects over the years but called this “the most thoughtful and inspiring one I’ve ever seen”. 

“It’s about caring for others. In the current situation, everybody’s more individual, thinking about themselves, whereas here they are thinking about the family, everybody within the community. I think it’s fantastic also. I think the most brilliant thing about this initiative as well, it’s about healthy food and about healthy living,” Roots tells the Big Issue.

“I’ve worked with a lot of food banks over the years, but this is also about cultural food. And for myself as a Carribean, this has everything that I would eat. And sometimes when you go to a food bank, yes you’re grateful, but it’s not food they really would have chosen. It’s about making a choice with what you are eating, and I think that’s really powerful.”

Roots says there are times in his life when he could have used a place like the INI Food and Wellbeing Centre. “I grew up in Brixton, in southwest London,” he says. “I left home at a very early age because I had a very dysfunctional home with my father, so I sort of went out on my own. But that’s the danger back then, because we didn’t have places like these.

“I think for some of these kids who are on their own nowadays, or the families who cannot afford to feed themselves, these places will become really special. When I was growing up and on my own and in a squat with some friends and you had to scrimp and save as much as you can, I would have loved to have a place like this. I’m so excited for the local people here.”

People from the community are moved when speaking about the work that they hope will be done at the food and wellbeing hub. Activist and youth ambassador Joshua Brown Smith calls it an “emotional and joyous moment”. 

Earl Adams, the son of Elder Jay Blue who founded Rastafari Movement UK says it will continue the organisation’s mission of “fostering a sense of connection and community”. 

And the chief executive of Action Against Hunger UK Jean-Michel Grand, who lives just 15 minutes away from the hub, spoke of Sistah Stella Headley’s visionary idea and how they will continue working together to ensure that people who are hungry get the help they need.

“The inspiration that the Sistah brought is just so infectious,” Roots adds. “When you’re looking for people to inspire you, you can’t find anything more special than what she’s done. The invitation to support came directly from her, and I wanted to come along and get her inspiration. We all need to have a little bit of Stella.”

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