A new community‑led cookbook capturing the flavours, stories, and lived experiences of Haringey residents will be launched this month, as the Haringey Community Food Network (HCFN) brings together local cooks, partners, and communities for a borough‑wide celebration of food, culture, and care.
Titled Haringey Recipes of Love, the cookbook is the result of a year‑long initiative rooted in community kitchens, shared meals, storytelling, and creative exchange. Developed in partnership with The Humanity Project, the initiative took place across more than ten venues throughout Haringey, engaging over 300 residents and bringing together 37 community cooks, who shared 38 recipes representing over 20 cultures and 23 countries.
More than a collection of recipes, the book reflects the borough’s rich cultural diversity. Each dish is accompanied by personal stories of migration, memory, family, and belonging, turning the cookbook into what organisers describe as a living archive of Haringey’s communities. From Ukrainian soups and Caribbean stews to North African couscous and South Asian curries, food becomes both cultural expression and storytelling practice.
The project culminates in a public launch event on Friday 24th April at OmVed Gardens, where these stories will be brought to life. Residents from across the borough are invited to take part in guided garden walks, experience live poetry and music, and share a communal meal prepared by four featured cooks using recipes drawn directly from their own lives and experiences.
At a time when many residents continue to face cost‑of‑living pressures, Recipes of Love highlights the role of food not only as a basic necessity, but as a powerful tool for dignity, resilience, and connection. Through shared meals and creative expression, the project creates welcoming spaces where people can listen to one another, recognise common ground, and build relationships across difference.
Crucially, the initiative also aims to rebuild civic participation, strengthen trust, and nurture human connection — helping communities move beyond division and polarisation through everyday acts of care.
Moussa Amine Sylla, member of the HCFN Management Committee, reflected on the project’s wider significance:
“Recipes of Love shows the power of food to bring people together. When someone shares a dish, they’re also sharing their story — their culture, their memories, their identity. Across Haringey, we’ve seen people connect in new ways, building relationships that go beyond the kitchen. But this project is also about something deeper: rebuilding trust, creating spaces where people feel heard and valued, and strengthening the social fabric of our communities.”
Diva Garg, Events Manager at OmVed Gardens, added:
“We’re proud to host this celebration of Haringey’s communities. OmVed Gardens is a space for connection — between people, food, and nature — and Recipes of Love reflects those values beautifully. We’re really looking forward to welcoming residents from across the borough.”
Led by the Haringey Community Food Network, the project brings together food banks, growers, community kitchens, volunteers, artists, and organisers working collectively to ensure that everyone in Haringey has access to nutritious, culturally meaningful food. Through food, storytelling, and art, Haringey Recipes of Love celebrates culture while building dialogue, mutual understanding, and collective action — reminding us that some of the most powerful forms of community and creativity begin at the table.
About OmVed Gardens and Future Collaboration
OmVed Gardens is a London‑based space where culture, learning, biodiversity, and food awareness come together through regenerative practice, public programming, and advocacy. Rooted in a commitment to ecological care and social justice, OmVed creates opportunities for people to reconnect with land, food systems, and one another — fostering curiosity, shared learning, and responsibility for the natural world. Its work champions biodiversity, sustainable food practices, and inclusive cultural engagement, making it a vital platform for conversations about how we grow, share, and value food.
Through the launch of Haringey Recipes of Love, OmVed Gardens and the Haringey Community Food Network come together around shared values of care, dignity, and community‑led action. Both organisations see this moment not as an endpoint, but as the beginning of deeper collaboration — working together in the future to explore creative, educational, and advocacy‑led approaches that strengthen food awareness, celebrate cultural knowledge, and support resilient, connected communities.
