Sunny
Founder & CEO
Community leader, visionary and unstoppable force with a big heart. Our founder Sunny has unlimited passion for creating unity and justice in our community through growing and sharing food. Since founding Edible London he has never looked back. Meet Sunny, our Founder and CEO.
Sunny
Founder & CEO
Hi, I’m Sunny!
I’d like to start off by saying that even though people call me the creator of Edible London... I don’t believe I created it at all! It organically materialised. What started the growth sprout was my need to change the way I ate and viewed life, people and planet all rolled into one. I started the journey towards a different lifestyle and along the way, I sowed some seeds... and my community grew around them. We're now a tier 2 food provider as COVID-19 scaled our operation up in an unforeseeable way. As CEO of Edible London and a leader in the community, I am responsible for nurturing not only my staff but all those involved in our actions equally, and the roots of what EL is and should stay. I need to make sure that EL becomes regenerative and sustainable - not only in financial terms!
We've become a keystone organisation within the community. The importance of what we do beyond the food poverty realm has actually sunk in - people here now rely upon each other in a way they wouldn't have before. EL has connected dots that weren't even visible to each other before. I keep on getting stopped in the street and talked to by strangers, and all I receive is an onslaught of humble praise and acknowledgement for what EL does. They talk to me about how it has not only helped tackle food poverty but has also nourished people's minds, thus addressing the biggest issue we are all facing on a day to day basis (even more so at the moment!) which is mental health. For me to sit back and hear hundreds of people testify how EL has supported their mental wellbeing, given them the courage and drive to do something within their own community is nothing short of a miracle. I believe that our roots have taken hold in a strong way and that if you try to pull us up now, it would be a disaster!
Nothing I can ever do again in my life will have a bigger impact than that of Edible London. It has reformed my emotional wellbeing, and I no longer suffer from stress and anxiety. It may not look like it, but I am not a confident person - I just face my fears head on. Public speaking, being in group settings: these were things I struggled with my whole life - and now I absolutely relish being surrounded by people. It's taking care of my soul. I do give a lot to my community through this work, but I think the community should know what they have given to me: a sense of purpose, a reason to get out of my bed every day. It has changed and refined the word "work" for me: I don't see my commitments here as “work”, they are part of everything I do in my life, I live and breathe them. I feel very lucky that I get to wake up everyday and do exactly what I want to do for both people and the planet. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that EL has saved my life.
If I was an Edible plant, I would actually be a tree - a fig tree! Not because it has a lot of biblical connotations, but because it was the first tree that my father planted in our garden, back around 1969. Although it isn't native to the UK, in my time, I watched it grow and change - producing fruit in abundance. At one point for 13 years I cared for this tree, and trained the direction of one branch approximately 15 metres long. Off this tree, we got thousands and thousands of figs and hundreds of cuttings that we planted elsewhere. I'd like to think that whatever I create is full of sweet, sweet fruit that can be shared, and that my visions and actions can be taken anywhere else and replicated - in any place or climate!
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