When she became a new mum, Sandra moved to Tottenham from West London but didn’t know anyone in the area. Sandra saw an advert for a community food growing group so went along to meet new people. That’s where her love of horticulture began.

“I was also looking to find locally grown organic food for my son and just couldn’t. The organic food I could find was so expensive. Twelve years later, I run projects like Women Leading with the Land, teaching women of African and Caribbean heritage land cultivation, food growing and enterprise. I also work with children, connecting them to food growing and taking care of the environment.

Lovingly referred to as 'Miss Dandelion' or ‘Soil Sister’ by those she inspires in Tottenham, Sandra is deeply rooted in the community. She has a myriad of food growing projects around London, from working with local schools and nurseries, to teaching the young ones how to grow food, to inter-generational and multicultural community food projects, to growing food in green spaces on housing estates, allotments and community projects.

“I asked primary school students, we were in the garden, and I asked them a very simple question: ‘do you know where food comes from?’ It was a very simple question that I would think nothing of, but the students said that food ‘comes from the fridge, the freezer, the tin, the packet’. None of them said that it comes from the earth. That’s when I realised that, okay wait a minute, this is actually bigger than what I thought it would be.

“I’ve always wanted to be part of a change; I just didn’t know what that change would be. Now, this is my passion, my life. My mission is to grow food with love. My mission is to bring people back to nature.”