How our monthly Eco pop up has helped forge community links  

For the last three years Leigh Road Baptist Church has hosted a monthly space where local environmental and social justice charities can meet the public, and local eco stalls can sell their items. Gina Cox explains more

In the summer of 2021 as the Covid epidemic was starting to abate and places were beginning to open again, Leigh Road Baptist Church began to look for ideas for its new community space, which we later called the Livirng Room.

The Revd Steve Tinning, then our associate minister, suggested we ask our local community what they would like the space to be used for. We received more than 100 responses from a questionnaire with many good ideas... The main themes we found were reducing social isolation, something for youth locally, and activities that addressed the environmental crisis.

Taking up the reigns with the environmental strand, I proposed a regular Eco pop up at the Living Room, where local environmental and social justice charities could have a space to meet the public, and where local eco stalls could have a regular space to sell their items. 

This idea was given the green light by the church, and a small group of women from our Green group started our Global Community Saturday eco pop up in October 2021.

We recently celebrated our third birthday. In that time we've created a lovely community of eco stallholders and team who have become friends. 

Alongside charities (which come for free) and eco stallholders (who have table for £10) we have our small refill counter, where the community can come and refill their washing up liquid, handsoap, and cleaning spray refills. 



We have a small book corner, where people can bring and take books for free and we are also a collection point for the local Southend Care Bank and Food Bank.

Some of our regular stallholders include Sue from Wonky Stitches, who makes gifts from upcycled materials; Fabienne from the Ecuadorian Life in Abundance charity with jewellery made from Tagua nut; Kate from Contrary Mary who makes clothing from upcycled materials; Ann with local Essex honey; the team from South East Essex Friends of the Earth; Claire from Hurry Home for Tea who sells flowers she grows and French antiques; Jane from Creatively Made who sells eco candles and crochet gifts; Mila with a plant stall, and me with Wonderful Earth a stall selling Fairtrade food and gifts. 

Last year we developed a Children's Growing Club which participates each month, inviting local children to come and pot up a seed or small seedling to grow on, with instructions. We felt this was very important to help children develop skills in growing their own food, in the climate we live in that is likely to alter in the years ahead. 

Children are now coming back telling Lauren and Lily who kindly run the stall, how their plants are growing, and it has become a lively stall in our offering.

During the year we're often engaged in different events: this coming month our eco stalls are supporting a clothes swap run by the local Women's Institute and the church. 

We always support Fairtrade Fortnight each year, with Co-op coming to attend, and Fairtrade chocolate and wine testing (always popular!). In the winter months we've had draught excluder making workshops with one of our lovely stallholders Sue. 

In June we will be marking Big Green Week, with our Friends of the Earth stall promoting eco swaps. Normally in November we also have a bigger Eco Christmas Fair at Leigh Road Baptist Church. 

We have found this monthly Eco pop up really helps to forge community links, between church and community which is vital in the challenges we face ahead as our climate changes. 

It has brought us together as a small team of women seeking to do the little we can do, in our little patch. 

And it is naturally missional, as so many people both inside and certainly outside the church want to see action on the environment, raising awareness and working on these issues together is a blessing. 

As an added bonus, our activities counted towards the Community and Global engagement section of the A Rocha Eco Award. 

I wonder if there is something you can do with your church community that is a natural community outreach too? Beach cleans, litter picks, Eco fairs, clothes swaps, forest services and Fairtrade events all help to highlight the importance of the environment, while bringing different groups of people together with a common interest and aim to look after the planet. 
 

Gina Cox is the Eco Church Enabler at Eastern Baptist Association, and a member of Leigh Road Baptist Church, Essex