Sarah Ainslie’s Food Producer Portraits

May 15, 2026

by the gentle author

WITH 3 DAYS TO GO, thanks to the generosity of 10 more donors since yesterday, we have now raised £19,526 with £5,474 left to find to reach our target of £25,000 to publish WOMEN AT WORK, Sarah Ainslie’s East End Portraits 1992-2025. CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR CROWDFUND

Sajia Nessa harvesting tomatoes at Stepney City Farm

Historically, the East End was the centre of food production for London, abounding in market gardens and small holdings. Today, a new wave of food producers has arisen to challenge the dominance of fast-food and supermarkets. Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie has documented this movement in a series of portraits, celebrating community and food culture, and showcasing local projects building fairer, more sustainable food systems.

Alani Shafiq, mushroom grower for MadLeap, cultivating oyster mushrooms in a converted car garage turned controlled environment studio at R-Urban eco-civic hub in Poplar. ‘I hope to leave a legacy of the fungi, diverse, resilient, adaptable, detoxifying, mutualistic, dramatic, beautiful, complex.’

Rokiah Yaman, co-founder of MadLeap, likes working with power tools on site when she is not fundraising, project managing or developing partnerships. ‘We want to share our enthusiasm for microbes and fungi. We hope to give people a better understanding of how they play a key role in supporting our digestion, health, and breaking down our biopresources – there is no such thing as waste in nature!’

Jim Ford & Genia Leontowitsch, custodians of a Swedenborg Square Orchard, a community orchard that is part of E1 Community Gardeners. Genia: ‘I’m really proud of it, this is the difference I’ve made.’

Liam Williams & Laura Buckley, co-ordinators at Cranbrook Community Food Garden, working to engage people on the Cranbrook Estate in Bethnal Green with food growing. Laura: ‘It’s attracted a lot more people to the garden, people feel more likely to come in, it’s really added to our estate.’

Fawzi Rahman, Aska Welford & Anna Corf Isehayek, stewards of House of Annetta, a spatial justice project in Princelet St, learning about localised and diverse approaches to surplus food. Anna: ‘Here it always starts with food, so it also makes it more accessible, and more relaxed, more welcoming.’

Rebecca Evans-Merritt , operations manager at Limborough Hub in Poplar, a garden and cooking space that offers the resources to cook, grow, learn about all things food and climate related, as well as social gatherings and celebrations. ‘We’re able to have that flow – growing food, cooking food, eating food.’

Shazna Hussain & Sajna Miah are the Food Lives team, a research group running a podcast looking into communities’ eating choices. Shazna: ‘It’s giving a voice to those women that have never been asked, or never really thought of, being able to share their knowledge and expertise around food.’

Melly, Shamima, Sabina, Marisa of Teviot Food Co-op, providing subsided organic produce with support from Alexandra Rose Charity and the Bridging the Gap initiative, making shopping for healthy and affordable food easier.

Katrina Wright, a local food grower who is part of the Right to Grow campaign in Tower Hamlets has lots of horticultural knowledge at her disposal, a gardening and growing expert. ‘It has a kind of ripple effect, so you are impacting people’s lives and creating a legacy’

Aleya Taher, cook and community organiser, heads Teviot People’s Kitchen, bringing together local residents for regular meals, run from the R-Urban community garden in Poplar.

Cameron Bray, Angharad Davies & Andy Belfield are part of the R-Urban/Public Works team, operating an eco-civic hub that explores sustainable ways of working with food waste from tower blocks, turning it into nutrient rich soil – as well as running workshops, gardening sessions, foraging walks and more. Cameron: ‘It’s a space for learning, sometimes in a traditional sense, but also learning from each other, listening to each other, learning the stuff people already know.’

Rita Attille, local grower interested in the connection between mental wellbeing and nature, works with health services to get local people gardening.