Addressing the dignity of food banks and the demise of the high street by valuing the cultural diversity of London’s inner city.

'The Community Food Centre' rejects the current models of food banks issuing non-perishable food, and engages with the surplus food movement. Fresh and healthy produce acts as an enabler to the growing community agency around West Green Road, arising out of the battle over the Seven Sisters Market.

Creating a typology of dignity, the building mixes different uses to create a typology which brings together a foodbank, a food store, community kitchens, feasts, counselling services and residences. These are spaces which are normally held in temporary locations. Food banks can be found in churches, and in the case of St Mungo’s Guardianship scheme, the homeless are housed in closed office blocks and community centres.

West Green Road, where the project is situated, has been named the unhealthiest in London by the Royal Society for Public Health. The Community Food Centre argues that these civic uses deserve bespoke and purpose built spaces and will play a large role in reactivating the post-retail high street.