Invitations to Join In 1: Encounter Abundance

Hello
Saturday 11th October saw the launch of Invitations to Join in 1 at the Encounters shop which is a collaboration between Abundance, Encounters and other volunteers. It was a really busy and eventful day with about 70 people popping in between 2-4pm. We had an opening launch outside the shop with a collective fruit munching moment and juice drinking, someone had brought home made bread and we shared chutney and crackers. Albie cut the threshold made of vine to officially open the shop. Its open 3 days per week Wed 12- 6, Thursday 12-6, Saturday 11- 4 with a small team of volunteers. There are several activities going on in the shop. 1) Fruit/Story exchange. People come in and write a memory or story about feasting/meals/celebrations/fasting on a template that they hang on branches that are in the shop. They then help themselves to a bag of fruit 2) Recipe corner. People bring in a recipe and photocopy it and hang it on nails on the wall. 3) Fair Exchange corner. People bring in food related items and swap for seeds/ chutney that Abundance have provided and anything else that people have brought in. Today someone brought in a picture they'd painted of fruit, someone else a huge amount of Rosemary, some pickled onions. People are being asked to draw the item they've brought to exchange and the item they are taking 4) Sheffield Food Network. Architecture students from the university of Sheffield have created an interactive food map as part of a live project they are involved in to collect information about food/places. Finally there is also fresh juice, information about growing initiative in Sheffield. It has been really essential to have a central co - ordinator a job which Ruth Nutter has been doing and then a few of us acting as a curatorial/ installation team devising activities and setting up the shop. Now a wider group of people are acting as shop keepers and others will be doing workshops/specific activities. I feel that there is still work to be done to spread the word and some slots are bit thin on the ground for volunteers. So if anyone has a few hours especially on Saturdays that would be great.

Ruth