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
What delights can we look forward to at the first Palmers Green Festival since 2019, which will be held on Sunday coming, when the forecast is warm but not too hot, sunny but with some cloud, and not too windy?
As always, there will be live music and a DJ at the Bandstand during Sunday's Palmers Green Festival. This year the music stage is being organised by Clare Donovan of the wonderful food charity Cooking Champions that is doing so much to feed hungry residents and to revive the once widespread art of home cooking.
Today, between 10am and 8pm, there will be fun for the whole family in the borough's 'hinterlands' - along the Lea Navigation towpath. Explore an area that was once an important part of London's industry and a transport artery. It's still both of these to an extent, but it's also taken on a vital role in providing a cooling and calming strip bisecting the capital's ever hotter 'heat island'. All free, courtesy of the Canal and Rivers Trust and Enfield Climate Action Forum.
The already hugely impressive Friends of Broomfield Park have ambitions to 'move up to the next level'. They're looking for new people to help them do so. Might you, or anyone you know, help shape the Friends' future?
The Family Bike Club are off to market on Sunday - join them on a leafy ride to Forty Hall. And find out about their ambitious plans for electrification and how you can help.
I hope all readers have the first Sunday in September ringed in red on their calendar and are eagerly awaiting the return of the Palmers Green Festival.
As has been the case on second Sundays for a good few years, on 14th May the Food Gatherer will be running a farmers' market at Forty Hall Farm. But a novelty this month will be a new climate-friendly and family-friendly way of getting there. The Family Bike Club is organising a ride up to Forty Hall from their base next to Enfield Chase Station, using a quiet low-traffic route and led by a highly experienced cycling instructor and cycle ride marshal.
The first Sunday of the month means it's time for Myddleton Road Market, and Sunday gone being the first in May, what better way to celebrate than to dance around a maypole? Meanwhile in Fox Lane Sunday's celebrations included a tug-of-war between streets on either side of the road: Old Park Road versus Caversham Avenue.
One month until the festivals season starts in Broomfield Park. This year's Summer Festival follows the same successful formula as last year's - something for all ages and tastes: a mixture of live music, open-air theatre and musicals and fine dining under the apple trees. Then on 3rd September - the return of the Big One - the Palmers Green Festival itself!
Visitors to last weekend's Palmers Green Spring Market, which saw the recently created Devonshire Square filled with traders, shoppers and musicians, were treated to an unscheduled appearance and impromptu performance by singer, multi-instrumentalist and former PG resident Freya Riding when she dropped by at the market.
After three bad harvests in a row, caused by disease and poor weather, the award-winning and previously successful Forty Hall Vineyard is in trouble and has launched a fundraising appeal. It 'cannot survive another year without monetary support' and needs to raise £85,000 to pay for equipment and resources to protect its vines from disease.