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We hope that you will join us in filling this year with amazing projects, workshops and activities that help the people of Rugby to
Reduce | Reuse | Repair | Recycle | Regenerate
Celebrations of Events
Great Big Green Week
We celebrated Rugby’s Great Big Green Week with some amazing workshops and events. These included the lively “Growing Food in Small Containers” workshop, showing the heartwarming film ‘Power Station’ about a community energy project, and a discussion session discussing this and what we could do in Rugby along these lines. Finally the Library of Things held a tabletop sale of surplus items.
‘Growing Food in Small Containers’, was organised with Garden Organic at the start of Rugby’s Great Big Green Week. It was a great success with very positive feedback from more than 20 participants, many of whom were first time visitors to the Eco Hub. The workshop showed how - even at the start of June - anyone can prepare and plant veg and salads at home in planters of any shape, size and construction. All that’s needed are 5 things: a planter with enough daylight, good growing medium, a few seeds/plants, water and feed, and lots of tender loving care! Among many positive comments by participants, they said: "Thank you for the opportunity to attend this excellent workshop"; "Liked the hands-on approach"; "Gives me great confidence after hearing these talks"; "I'll give a go to planting easy to grow veggies/herbs in containers”; "The people giving the talks were very warm and helpful. They made me feel motivated about gardening and trying out new techniques :)"; "A fabulous session"; [I'll] "Be Braver!"; [I'm] “Starting my veg-growing journey"; "Loved being able to try things out, planting stuff and seeing the range of growing containers at the Eco Hub."
Power Station film was organised by Thinking Thursdays. It’s a 2025 British documentary film directed by artist-activists Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn, which follows the couple as they attempt to take their Walthamstow street off the grid by installing community-led solar panels. The film highlighted the process of fundraising and the difficulties encountered in getting such a project moving. Benefitting their community with cheaper, greener, cleaner energy, tackling the joint issues of fuel poverty and the climate crisis, it shows everybody can make a difference no matter how small.
Thinking Thursdays also held a discussion about the film and how we might learn from this in our ambitions to launch a successful Rugby Community Energy initiative. 28 people attended and some new volunteers were recruited to join the committee.
The Library of Things held a tabletop sale; the purpose of which was to place stock which, unfortunately, nobody has ever borrowed with proud new owners who will put it to good use. This allowed us to free up valuable storage space and potentially acquire by donation or by purchasing new items to lend out to the people of Rugby. The sale was a great success and raised vital funds for the Eco Hub in the process. Our personal thanks to those who donated cakes for sale, some made using a food processor borrowed from the Library of Things, putting smiles on people’s faces and generating further funds for the Eco Hub. Keep an eye out for future tabletop sales as we still have stock to rehome! All of our events were very well attended, and we welcomed a few new faces. Let's hope that next year's Great Big Green Week is even better!
Eco Hub's Community Ceilidh
Our sold-out Community Ceilidh, part of the Love Rugby festivities, was a huge success! We had a brilliant day of dancing, eating and even had a mayoral visit!
We were told: "We had a lovely time at the ceilidh, it was a really fun event and we were so impressed with how everything was organised" and "We and our guests really enjoyed ourselves. It was well organised, great band and great food." We were delighted the Mayor joined in the celebration. She said: “The spirit of community comes alive with the ceilidh in Rugby Eco Hub, holding hands, learning steps, swapping dance partners, linking arms, doing the do-se-do, lots of smiles, laughs, meeting new people and old friends; what a great way to spend a summer’s afternoon. We all need a little time for our wellbeing, sharing food and conversation. Rugby Eco Hub certainly has it all - be a part of something really special.” The Mayor of Rugby, Nooria Sayani
We would like to extend a special thank you to a few people; without them, the Ceilidh could not go ahead…
Lisa Heywood and Steve Redshaw for being our callers Adhoc Folk for being our amazing musicians Alun Reed for being our chef and the many volunteers that came to help with set up and clean up - without you we could not have had the most amazing event!
John Slinger MP visits Rugby Eco Hub and supports our ethos
John Slinger MP visited the Eco Hub one Saturday lunchtime and was greatly impressed by what he saw. He appreciated the conversations he had with our volunteers in the Repair Café, Growing 🌱 Group and the Kitchen. He reminded us that he has signed the UK Repair and Reuse Declaration, at our request. He was supportive of our approach that aims to enable people to make affordable changes in their lifestyles to help cope with the climate, nature and food crises, i.e. to ensure they have agency in deciding on appropriate actions they can take. He was delighted to have the meal, prepared by the volunteers from Dunchurch Park Hotel. In particular, he was very moved by his conversations with these volunteers, whose accounts about what they were fleeing from affected him deeply. His three key words about Rugby Eco Hub were: “Community, Agency, Decency and more…”
Project Events and Showcase
Growing🌱Group
Our team of volunteers have done wonders in keeping the demonstration planters at the Eco Hub, the Caldecott Park raised bed and the Community allotment thriving in the intense heat and drought over the past months. We aim to show how easy, affordable and enjoyable it is for anyone to grow some of their own food and help nature thrive, all while contributing, in small ways, towards a better, healthier and more resilient food system. And we provide some leafy veg, salads, herbs and the occasional carrot or courgette, with greater quantities of veg from the allotment, for the lunches prepared in the Eco Hub kitchen.
Library of Things
The Library of Things has proven to be immensely popular over the past two months, with a surge in loans of gardening equipment in particular but also for the picnic set, general DIY tools and decorating equipment also very popular.
The PA system has also been in demand, along with the gazebos, presumably for those outdoor events during this long and warm spell of weather.
At present the Library of Things is only open for collections and returns on Saturday mornings between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm so when you book your items please be patient with the volunteers as our Saturday mornings are now very, very busy with other people having had the same great idea as you.
Thinking Thursdays
For our Thinking Thursdays session in July, we once again found ourselves in John Lees Hall on one of the most stiflingly hot evenings of the year, showing quite coincidentally but very appropriately the People's Emergency Briefing film.
We turned out to watch the film and discuss the issues contributing to the climate emergency. It was clear from the fact that most people stayed for the Q&A session, in spite of the stifling heat, and from the quality of the questions asked, that a growing number of people are willing to challenge the status quo.
One objective of the screenings is to persuade people to lobby their MPs to try and get an established regular public briefing on the climate and nature crises in the same style as the daily briefings during COVID. Materials about this can be found on the National Emergency Briefing website https://www.nebriefing.org/take-action .
The message continues to be spreading, and as a result of the Rugby screening there will now be a screening in Barnacle village on Monday 17th August 2026 at 18:30 https://buytickets.at/na61/ and in Dunchurch in September, details to be confirmed.
Many thanks to the Coop community Team and especially Jo Green, who came along, provided the refreshments, and Jo even did a stint helping the usual wonderful volunteers in the kitchen, keeping the very large audience fed and watered.
Thinking Thursdays - Upcoming events:
Saturday 8th August:Picnic in the Park
An informal get-together in Caldecott Park from around midday in the area beneath the trees between the bandstand and Park Road. Bring your own picnic, come say hello.
You can take this opportunity to just enjoy a relaxing Saturday in the park or find out more about the Eco Hub, take part in the Rugby Friends of the Earth 1-minute bus survey and make new friends and acquaintances. You can book on Eventbrite just to let us know that you are coming at no cost to you. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/summer-picnic-tickets-1994989913535
We would love to see you there.
Thursday 10th September:
Returning to the Eco Hub, we proudly present a talk by Becca Stevenson about the launch of the UK fruit and vegetable coalition and how they propose to change the food system, enabling the UK to produce more food of a higher quality and in a way which is better for our environment. Book your place on Eventbrite now.
Did you know we had a sewing team at Repair Café Rugby? Our fantastic team of sewers have made waves with their abilities to fix and give life back into household wares and clothes.
If you have something that needs a new zip or a minor repair, maybe a soft toy needs a new eye? Bring it down to our next session and let us help your items live longer.
Our next session is 15th August 2026 10am - 1pm
Betts Café
Betts Cafe has become increasingly busy over the Summer months. The informal lunches on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month, 12.30 pm- 1.30 pm, after the Repair Cafe are open to all. Three courses are served in return for a donation to support Eco Hub activities.
On the fourth Saturday of each month, from 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm, Betts Café hosts a special lunch. With the help of groups of asylum seekers, we have served authentic dishes from Persia and Afghanistan. If you want to come to any of these lunches, please email info@rugbyecohub.org to book.
We would love to expand the number of times Betts Café is open, so we are looking for more volunteers to lead/join the team. No qualifications are necessary so long as you enjoy cooking food. All volunteers are enabled to gain a Level 2 food handling qualification. If you would like to talk to someone about this opportunity, call Shena 07377356556 or email shenacooper@gmail.com
We are always looking for volunteers to help us with our community projects and the behind the scene jobs.
With all of our new volunteers we talk through the opportunitites and then discuss where you would like to start.
Some of the volunteering opportunities are;
Repair Café Fixer - Specifically watch repair
Repair Café Host
Library of Things Volunteer
Social Media Content Creator
Kitchen Team Volunteer
Fundraising Volunteer
Outreach Volunteer
Nappy Library Volunteer
Trustees
So whether you can help cleaning or attend events or be a part of our projects contact us now on info@rugbyecohub.org
Partnerships
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust - Nature in Focus
We supported Warwickshire Wildlife Trust with organising and facilitating a meeting in Betts Hall as a further follow up to RBC’s ‘Nature in Focus - Rugby’ event held in Benn Hall in July last year. The meeting aimed to identify the ways in which a network of local organisations involved in nature conservation and related activities could operate. Among many ideas, there was a focus on ‘Linking’:
Active organisations involved in such work around the Borough; People’s knowledge about what’s going on (some volunteer with several different organisations); and Nature-rich areas so as to improve ‘biodiversity-intactness’ throughout the borough. A further meeting in Betts Hall is planned.
Gaia Yin Yoga
Sundays 10am - 11am , the Eco Hub
Could you spare 5 minutes to contribute to a community wellbeing survey?
Gaia YIn Yoga is applying for grant funding to bring subsidised, restorative yin yoga classes to residents across Rugby town and the surrounding area.
To help show need and demand I would really appreciate your input.
Sundays except 16th August 12pm - 1pm - the Eco Hub
Travelling Dojo has come to the Eco Hub!
A 12 week adult self defence class that is lead by Ishmaeel, a black belt in Shotokan. Any ability can join in so if you would like to book onto the course please visit the website; www.travellingdojo.co.uk/rugby-self-defence-course
How to support Rugby Eco Hub
We offer community projects for free to help the residents of Rugby save money whilst being eco friendly and sustainable, but to continue offering these projects we need support. There are many ways you can contribute:
Give As You Live is a platform that allows either one-off or regular donations (and also gift aid them). You can also make donations by shopping online!
If you would like to donate to us please scan the above QR code or visit our give as you live page HERE
