Maresa Bossano: Building a Community Food Hub on Cowick Street

Maresa Bossano, founder of Love Food CIC, shares the story behind Exeter's community food hub on Cowick Street in St Thomas, and makes a compelling case for why local, plant-based food isn't a lifestyle choice but vital to public health infrastructure.

Maresa has spent thirty years working in sustainable food, first as a five-a-day coordinator for the NHS, then running a food co-op at Sustain in London, managing a vegan cafe in Hastings, and leading the Community Supported Agriculture Network. She moved to the Exeter area and set up Love Food CIC in 2021. In the years since it opened, around a thousand people have come through the door. About half are regulars.

The hub runs a pay-what-you-can Thursday lunch club, a community fridge stocked from surplus donations, free and low-cost cookery sessions focused on food waste and budget eating, and a swap shop for clothes, toys and books. It also serves as a warm space, a hiring venue for community organisations, and a drop-in for anyone who needs to sit somewhere safe and charge their phone.

Maresa talks frankly about what the food system gets wrong, why cooking is not about skill or willpower, and what it would take for every neighbourhood in Exeter to have something like this.

Get Involved

• Love Food CIC website
• Love Food CIC on Instagram
• Love Food CIC on Facebook
• Community food hub at LOVEFood CIC, 95 Cowick Street, St Thomas, Exeter EX4 1JF. Open Monday to Thursday, 10am to 3pm.
• Thursday lunch club 12:30 to 1:30pm, pay what you can. Not running during school holidays — check the website for dates.
• Cookery sessions free and low cost, usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Check the website or follow on social media for upcoming sessions.
• Community fridge free surplus food for anyone, open during core hours. Donations of home-grown or surplus food welcome.
• To volunteer, donate, or hire the space: visit lovefoodcic.co.uk or email lovefoodcic@gmail.com.