MERTON’S GREEN GUARDIAN AWARDS 2007 - GardenLend nominated for an Award

As a celebration of local Green achievements and a means of publicising the problems that the planet faces, this event left much to be desired. Poorly attended, poorly organized and poorly located.

The entire problem with this event was summed up by the buffet. As the event was part-sponsored by Riverford Organics, “Our Farm On your Table”, I was looking forward to a tasty and nutritious fresh buffet featuring some seasonal delicacies. Instead I was greeted by one of the horrors I used to have to order for meetings when I worked as a PA – chilled-to-tasteless samosas, prawns encased in pastry shrouds, pork pie-lets, industrially recovered bits of animal fried in breadcrumbs … you get the picture.

This celebration of real food at the Green Guardian Awards was held in a corner of the energy wasteful Odeon Cinema in Wimbledon, and nobody knew it was there. No passer-by was given a leaflet to explain what was happening and there was no signage outside Nothing. The Green Machine was running on silent. A great opportunity missed. The awards were presented in an almost entirely empty Screen 7. Merton Council and The Wimbledon Guardian could surely have done more on the publicity side to get people in and involved. They have the voice that small organizations such as GardenLend don’t have. The cinema should have been packed with journalists, small business advisors, and venture capitalists – whatever it takes to make our small efforts grow and flourish.

Instead the whole thing felt like a dirty little secret that had to be addressed. If that is what people think is needed to save the planet then we’d better start praying. GardenLend didn’t win, but then again nobody did.