While we admire and support the Christmas campaigns that we see pop up in December, we also know that help is urgently needed all year round, each and every year. As some people pack away after the festive break, we are still here.
Our support is not limited to a food package, but it leaps beyond - we form connections, we listen and respond to everyone who steps through our doors. We open up a warm, safe, environment which aims to feel like a home away from home.
For us to continue to thrive and grow, and keep supporting as many people as possible, we are asking you to become a Friend of Cooking Champions. Even a donation of just £5-10 per month can make a HUGE impact on the lives of those who come through our doors.
Pop to our People's Fundraising page to donate, and we promise to keep you updated with how your support is making a difference. Thank you, we appreciate you! Team Cooking Champions
The Feed Enfield Summer Food Project launches this week. Run by the Love Your Doorstep Consortium, with support from the Enfield Town Schools' Partnership, the project will provide 1600 nutritious meals a week, distributed from six hubs. More volunteers are sought to work at the hubs and to move food from the kitchen at the Millfield Theatre to the hubs.
Starting on 24th July free food will be available from St John's Parish Centre on Fridays. St Monica's Catholic Church continues to distribute free food on Monday afternoons.
Age UK Enfield have launched a Veteran Support Project, a new service which supports anyone who has served in the Armed Forces or National Service and their families.
Citizens Advice Enfield's two rather smart charity shops in Palmers Green are back - both in Green Lanes, one on the corner of Park Avenue, the other just south of the North Circ. However, for CAB Enfield's volunteer advisors the lockdown has not meant a break in their work - if anything, the reverse. In the first month they helped 675 clients, moving from face-to-face to assistance over the phone. Nationally, Citizens Advice has helped 380,000 clients with their problems over the past three months.
News from Alison Gordon at Age UK Enfield: We've developed a wide range of free online activities via zoom to support Health & Wellbeing. Our aim is offer online activities until we can safely meet together in public in small groups, but also to reach new people who may not be confident to return to groups as they slowly redevelop and want to remain indoors.
Over the last three months the food-focussed social enterprise that Palmers Green resident Clare Donovan runs - on top of her job teaching maths in a secondary school - has expanded beyond recognition and now fulfils a vital role in feeding people who would otherwise go hungry - more than 11,000 hot meals so far! This weekend Clare is offering you a unique chance to cook your own gourmet meal while supporting the invaluable work of Cooking Champions.
Politicians don't always like being photographed at their front door, but here's one politician who's more than happy and is looking very relaxed to boot. Enfield Southgate MP Bambos Charalambous is seen here posing outside his home for local photographer Jenny Smith, who's raising money for a domestic violence charity, Refuge, by taking (socially distanced) photos of people standing at their front door, in return for a donation.
When the Covid-19 lockdown began, among the items that quickly disappeared off the supermarket shelves - toilet rolls, pasta, flour etc - were sanitary pads. These are among the essentials that North Enfield Food Bank distributes to its users. At the council's request, Palmers Green resident Anne Nicholls came to the rescue. After putting out a call for help on Facebook, Anne was able to assemble a team of women from around the borough to help produce handmade reusable pads.