CoLab Women: Compassion, Connection and Recovery

Maresa Bossano: Building a Community Food Hub on Cowick Street

Maresa Bossano, founder of Love Food CIC, shares the story behind Exeter's community food hub on Cowick Street in St Thomas, and makes a compelling case for why local, plant-based food isn't a lifestyle choice but vital to public health infrastructure. Maresa has spent thirty years working in sustainable food, first as a five-a-day coordinator for the NHS, then running a food co-op at Sustain in London, managing a vegan cafe in Hastings, and leading the Community Supported Agriculture Network. She moved to the Exeter area and set up Love Food CIC in 2021. In the years since it opened, around a thousand people have come through the door. About half are regulars. The hub runs a pay-what-you-can Thursday lunch club, a community fridge stocked from surplus donations, free and low-cost cookery sessions focused on food waste and budget eating, and a swap shop for clothes, toys and books. It also serves as a warm space, a hiring venue for community organisations, and a drop-in for anyone who needs to sit somewhere safe and charge their phone. Maresa talks frankly about what the food system gets wrong, why cooking is not about skill or willpower, and what it would take for every neighbourhood in Exeter to have something like this. Get Involved * Love Food CIC website [https://lovefoodcic.co.uk] * Love Food CIC on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/lovefoodcic/] * Love Food CIC on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/lovefoodcic/] * Community food hub at LOVEFood CIC, 95 Cowick Street, St Thomas, Exeter EX4 1JF. Open Monday to Thursday, 10am to 3pm. * Thursday lunch club 12:30 to 1:30pm, pay what you can. Not running during school holidays — check the website for dates. * Cookery sessions free and low cost, usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Check the website or follow on social media for upcoming sessions. * Community fridge free surplus food for anyone, open during core hours. Donations of home-grown or surplus food welcome. * To volunteer, donate, or hire the space: visit lovefoodcic.co.uk [http://lovefoodcic.co.uk] or email lovefoodcic@gmail.com [lovefoodcic@gmail.com].

Will Adamsdale: Building Exeter's Comedy Scene From Pub To Festival

Perrier Award winner, actor, and the man behind Locally Sourced comedy night, Will Adamsdale traces the unlikely journey from a comedy emergency in a Sidwell Street cafe to founding Exeter's own annual comedy festival, now running around 90 shows across some of the city's most unexpected spaces. Locally Sourced comedy night began in 2021 at Ebdon's cafe, born from a chance meeting with comedian Charlotte Evans. Since moving to the Little Drop of Poison on Fore Street, it has become a community, with returning faces, an alphabetical raffle, and a WhatsApp emergency group to keep things moving. The festival grew in the same way: developed with Spencer Jones and Georgia Thomas, it has expanded from a single day at the Sidwell Street Bakehouse into a multi-day programme taking over bars, music shops, and established venues across Exeter. This year's festival runs from 3rd to 6th June. Get Involved * Exeter Comedy Festival website https://www.exetercomedyfestival.com/ [https://www.exetercomedyfestival.com/] * Locally Sourced on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/locallysourcedcomedy/ [https://www.instagram.com/locallysourcedcomedy/] * Exeter Comedy Festival on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/exetercomedyfestival/ [https://www.instagram.com/exetercomedyfestival/] Locally Sourced runs every Tuesday from 7:30pm at the Little Drop of Poison, 154 Fore Street, Exeter. Free entry / pay what you can. Exeter Comedy Festival 2026 Gala on 3 June, festival 4–6 June (plus family shows 7 June). Volunteer sign-up available via the website.

Lightbear Lane: Building Culture and Community Across Exeter's Streets and Stories

Dr Sarah Spencer and Dr Judith Morgane, the partnership behind arts and heritage organisation Lightbear Lane, share how they are using community film, creative mapping, Shakespeare and asset-based development to help Exeter find its identity, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Founded in 2023, Lightbear Lane takes a deliberately inside-out approach: rather than parachuting in with solutions, they ask communities what they already have. That philosophy produced the Proud to Be film project in Mincinglake and Whipton: a co-created portrait of a neighbourhood that generated a wassail song still sung every January, film-making skills workshops, and a set of resources now available for other communities to use. From those roots, the organisation has grown with work ranging from heritage consultancy at St Nicholas Priory to touring theatre across the South West. Now they are launching the South West Shakespeare Festival, a three-day programme across Exeter's historic venues that draws in the Cathedral Archives, the Devon and Exeter Institution, the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum and a Young Poets competition, to prove, as Judith puts it, that you do not need to go to London for world-class culture. They also discuss Lit Lab, their monthly creative gathering for professionals and curious minds, and an as-yet-unannounced publishing venture illustrated by Sarah and written by Judith. Get Involved * Lightbear Lane website – https://lightbearlane.org [https://lightbearlane.org] * South West Shakespeare Festival – full programme and tickets [https://lightbearlane.org/shakespeare/] * Proud to Be — film and community resources [https://proudtobe.lightbearlane.org] * Lightbear Lane on TicketSource — book events [https://www.ticketsource.com/lightbearlane] * Sign up to the Lightbear Lane newsletter via the website to hear about Lit Lab and upcoming workshops

The Modern Earl: Heritage, Innovation and the Future of Exeter

Recorded live at the Devon & Exeter Institution, this episode features Charlie Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, as he reflects on heritage, stewardship, and the future of Exeter. We explore: * What it means to “inherit” a story and reshape it for the modern world. * How the historic Earldom and the city of Exeter remain intertwined, from medieval trade to modern innovation. * His dual life as a barrister in technology and intellectual property law and a custodian of Powderham Castle, balancing tradition and sustainability. * Insights from his work with the Exeter Place Partnership, uniting city and rural Devon around shared environmental and economic challenges. * Powderham’s approach to sustainability, land management, and cultural preservation as a model for intergenerational stewardship. Resources & Links * Powderham Castle https://www.powderham.co.uk [https://www.powderham.co.uk] * Exeter Place Partnership https://placeexeter.co.uk [https://placeexeter.co.uk] * House of Lords Members Profile: Earl of Devon https://members.parliament.uk/member/4744 [https://members.parliament.uk/member/4744]

CoLab Women: Compassion, Connection and Recovery

Jeanie Lynch, Head of Service for CoLab Women, reflects on decades of community work and what it means to build trust, safety, and hope in Exeter. We discuss: * Her early activism in the 1980s Exeter women’s movement and her journey back to the city. * The origins of CoLab Exeter and how it evolved into a multi-agency support hub. * Founding Resilient Women, now CoLab Women, a programme helping women rebuild their lives after trauma, homelessness, or the justice system. * A relationship-based model focused on “what’s strong, not what’s wrong.” * The new Devon Domestic Abuse Alliance and innovative recovery programmes tailored to each woman’s pace. * How creativity, art, and belonging underpin recovery. Resources & Links * CoLab Exeter [https://www.colabexeter.org.uk] * Devon Domestic Abuse Alliance [https://www.devon.gov.uk/domesticabuse/] * Julian House Devon & Cornwall [https://www.julianhouse.org.uk]