The diverse food court will also be displaying a collection of posters and quotes from history, celebrating heroes and unsung heroes as part of Black History displaying.
With eight independent street food outlets offering globally inspired street food, Love Food has expanded the diversity of food offering for Maidstone with black business owners bringing authentic Caribbean, North African and Pan Asian food to the town.
Cllr Claudine Russell, Lead Member for Leisure and Arts at Maidstone Borough Council said:
“It is great that Love Food is celebrating Black History Month with this lovely event. They are also encouraging community groups and local businesses to use the space to host and run their own events to help set the foundations for this national celebration and we hope this could become an annual event for the town.”
Total Jerk Caribbean food owner Michelle Ayling said:
“We’d love to hear from local black artists, writers, professionals and entrepreneurs to see how we can come together across the month to showcase each other’s work and talents. We have something great to offer Maidstone here at Love Food and are continuing to grow our community and this includes hosting many events.”
Total Jerk often works in tandem with Funky Feast for events, whose French-trained chef Eric Allangba offers high-quality North African and Moroccan food. Eric says:
“We kick off Black History Month with our own event on 2 October. We have a steel pan drummer returning from our summer sessions. His Caribbean music was really popular and it will be great to add a dash of summer back into autumn. We also have a DJ to follow on into the evening.“But we are all new businesses and finding the time to run full events can be a challenge. We would really like to provide the platform at the venue to open it up to other businesses to collaborate with. This is our first Black History Month, so we are open to new ideas. If you think you have something to offer, please get in touch.”
For all enquiries, please email hello@lovefoodmaidstone.co.uk or get in touch via Instagram @lovefoodmaidstone.