Aber ECO eHub – The Making of a Local, Ethical, Digital Platform, & reconnecting the People of Aberystwyth during a pandemic

Early 2019 was an exciting time for the Aber Food Surplus team! The new ECO (Environment, Community, Opportunity) Food Sharing Hub opened on Chalybeate Street. It meant that we could now redistribute more perfectly edible food to the public, instead of supermarkets sending it to CO2 emitting landfill. Not only that, but we could also host events and workshops to build a more resilient, connected and environmentally aware community in Aberystwyth.

Parents and babies came to the Little Sprouts group, the Youth Group met after school on Mondays, the Youth Justice Group exchanged culinary tips, we got creative on Crafty Tuesdays, we came together for Radical Film Club and we saw the dawn of the Literature Group. We were able to provide food for the big Extinction Rebellion Climate Strike in August and the Youth Strike for Climate. On top of all that, it meant that we could host like-minded groups such as Plastic Free Aberystwyth (who hosted the first ever film at the Hub), Lampeter Seed Library (who taught us the importance of diversity in seeds) and the ‘Waste Not Want Not Battersea’ food project (who came to connect and collaborate on events like Valentine’s day nature speed-dating). These groups were enabled to reach out to the public using the space that the ECO hub had provided. It was all very exciting indeed.

Then came Coronavirus, and we were forced to migrate to a digital platform. So, Alex, Heather, Casper and I talked about setting up a website. We discussed what it should look like, how we wanted a forum and we decided that every group would be named after areas of the home, eg. Literature Lounge, which would make it inviting to the community. We wanted it to be independent of the AFS website, but married to it. We wanted it to be welcoming for both English and Welsh speakers. For the name, we figured we could just add an ‘e’ to the Hub to make in sound somewhat internet-y, and so, the ‘eHub’ was born. I had been made unemployed so I had some time on my hands.

My partner, being a software developer, taught me the basics of website design (HTML and CSS). It took time to understand these alien lanuages, but eventually the webpage was created. Communicating digitally with the team made it a slow process to encapsulate and execute everyone’s ideas of how the website should look. Sketches proved very helpful in communicating what words failed to. Despite the distance and laggy videocalls, it was a comforting feeling to collaborate with people to create something that can connect the community the way the Hub used to. We were excited at its potential. There was hope in the air amidst the ‘rona.

Once the homepage and forum sections were established, it was time for some content! A handful of honourable mentions go to the first contributors. Darron told us of his crafty inventions, Alex posted his podcast interviewing local writer Eluned Gramich, Heather posted about the upcoming Fashion Revolution Week and Lydia shared her recipe for oat milk. In its early days, it’s mostly been the AFS team who’ve been involved but we are hoping to reach out to all of Aberystwyth. We hope the eHub can serve the public as an ethical and more local alternative to the exploitative practices of the big data giants like Facebook or Twitter. The eHub will not be profiting from selling personal information to megacorporations to spy on us or to be analysed to better market useless products at us. The eHub is owned and controlled by us, the people who use it. Take it as one of those rare places where we can be truly free. Moreover, we hope this can be a place where people can support each other, share ideas and experiences or even have (civil) arguments, so we can stay connected in an increasingly isolating world.

By Mary MacDonald

“Living and studying Human Geography in Aberystwyth has allowed me to be a part of a supportive and loving community of creative and beautiful people. It’s through Aber Food Surplus that I get the most valuable interactions with people whether it be leading the Youth Group activities and collections or discussing the ways we can resist the powers of capitalism during Radical Film nights at the hub. I have a hobby of making earrings from wire and clay; arts and crafts in general but I most enjoy relishing in the company of friends. If you ever need any help with gardening, I’m sure I can help out with that too :) “