Village Raw - ISSUE 15

VILLAGE RAW
FOOD & DRINK
small social enterprise called SESI, based in Oxfordshire. Their ethos
is to work towards a closed-loop economy - recycling, repairing and
regenerating as much as possible.
Just up the road from Harmless is Nicola Glantz, the woman
behind WeFil in Friern Barnet. She is equally careful about choosing
the most sustainable options possible. Like many zero waste
shops, WeFil started as a personal journey. Nikki wanted to use
less plastic. When she started making her own hummus she was
getting chickpeas still in plastic. “It was ridiculous,” she tells me
over coffee.
A friend sent her a link to English refill shops, and she hasn’t looked
back. “We need one of these on every high street,” she reasons.
“The tricky thing is how you have one on every high street without
it encroaching on the next one.” Nikki used to shop as far away as St
Albans and would visit Harmless, before launching WeFil in 2018.
The business started as a pop up that would tour the local
neighbourhood. It was doing a swift trade and expanding when the
pandemic hit. She quickly pivoted to providing her products online
and delivering to specific postcodes. She now runs a WhatsApp
group and has gone back to doing pop ups once a month at
Myddleton Road Market and at her home.
Everything she sources is vegan and many of the products are
organic. One supplier is the Zero Waste Club, a UK-based company
that sources eco-friendly, affordable products with a very clear
supply chain. “You can’t compete with supermarkets when you
have a product from a company like that,” Nikki argues. “It’s not only
about quality, but how little impact they have on the environment.”
Without physical premises Nikki has low overheads, allowing her to
stay competitive and offer the occasional small perk.
The People’s Pantry, launched in Muswell Hill over the summer,
is also mobile. It uses a repurposed 1970s milk float to deliver to
north London postcodes and can be booked to appear on your
street. Lisa Jones and her husband Stephen Thomas explain that
the business has been “a gradual build”, with new products added
weekly. They are now showing up at local venues on fixed dates and
have had a good response. Business is roughly where they hoped.
For those on the high street, it’s a slightly different picture.
Alessandro at The Source says the pandemic has been “scary”
for business. He’s hoping for more predictability, as trade has
suffered from lockdowns, staffing issues, sickness and other
hard-to-control factors. He’s also looking to collaborate with local
businesses and have events that’ll appeal to the community. A
local vegan chef, for example, recently demonstrated how to cook
one of her recipes using ingredients in the store.
A few doors down is Michael Plastiras, who has run Broadway
Fruiterers in Crouch End for 24 years and is retiring this March. He
opened his refill space at the back of his fruit and veg shop on the
day the first lockdown was announced. Everything in the refill shop
is available packaged but it will cost 20% less if you buy it loose.
“I wanted to give customers better value for money,” he explains.
Back at Harmless, Tami believes that more people need to
adopt this lifestyle for prices to come down on some of the
premium items. She wants to make it easier to make the switch
and is responsive on Instagram where she can sometimes be
found dancing with her tight-knit team. Tami vows to keep going,
if only for those who have supported her including her customers.
“They are the soul of our shop and we wouldn’t still be here if it
wasn’t for them.”•
This page: Lisa Jones,
of The People’s Pantry,
serving customers from their
repurposed milk float at a
street pop-up.
Opposite page: Alessandro
Iovino with chef Rachel
Ama, during a vegan cooking
demonstration, at Crouch
End’s The Source Bulk Foods.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SOURCE BULK FOODS.
MORE INFO:
• Harmless, 79 Tottenham Ln, N8 * Insta @harmless_store
• The Source Bulk Foods, 3 The Broadway, N8 * Insta @thesourcecrouchend
• WeFil, deliveries to N2, N3, N8, N10, N11, N12, N22 and NW11. Pop-ups: Myddleton Rd
Market (1st Sunday) and 2 Goldsmith Rd, N11 (1st Friday) * Insta @wefil_you_up
• The People’s Pantry, deliveries to N2, N3, N8, N10, N11, N13 and N22 *
Insta @peoples_pantry
• The Broadway Fruiterers, 15 The Broadway, N8
NOTABLE OTHERS:
• The Cottage in Town (opening soon, N22), Unpackaged at Planet Organic (various
locations), The Deli at 80 (N4), Tony’s Continental (N2), Organic Alley (N10), Greens on
the Hill (N10), Halcyon (I can’t find this one!)
32 33