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
Winchmore Hill photographer Katrina Campbell is planning to turn her online exhibition Tales of Life under Lockdown into a book with the title When We All Stayed at Home and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to have it printed and published in time for Christmas. The idea isn't to create a large coffee table book to be saved for special occasions, but an A5 volume that can be shared at the kitchen table or read on the bus. What an excellent way of recording and remembering an extraordinary year!
To spread a bit of Christmas cheer, local arts organisation Tiger Monkey are making a short festive film for Enfield Council and you could be in it - without even leaving your living room.
Thanks to the filming and editing skills of Mark and Katie Hawkins, it's now possible to relive the Blues Chapter mini residency at St Harmonicas supported by Big Alan Craig with Lindsay Fraser Craig, or catch it for the first time.
The latest offering from Chickenshed's YouTube Premiere channel is a piece of verbatim theatre, staged in the Chickenshed Studio in 2016, that deals with the subject of domestic abuse. In the Absence of Silence was inspired by interviews conducted with women as part of Chickenshed's outreach project, Survivors. It will be available to watch until 30th December.
Fortunately, St Harmonica's didn't waste the few weeks that live music was able to return to the Southgate Club. Thanks to the filming skills of Mark and Katie Hawkins, edited footage from the September and October gigs is gradually being uploaded to the St Harmonica's YouTube Channel. Plus, download a recording from Lockdown Part 1 by local musician Tig Trafford.
Three much loved centres of important cultural, artistic and historical significance in Enfield have received more than £670,000 to safeguard their futures. Following applications from Enfield Council, Forty Hall has received £137,000 from the first round of the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) for Heritage while the Dugdale Centre and Millfield Theatre have been given £534,995 from the CRF grants programme. There were also awards for Chickenshed, Border Crossings and dance promoter Radioactive Clothing.
A new art course from Enfield & Southgate WEA begins after half-term, when Colin Lomas will be looking at Baroque and Rococo art to show the impact of the political, social and religious changes in art and architecture between 1600 and 1800.
Making History is a Lottery-funded project designed to encourage young people to express their emotions and experiences relating to COVID-19 and the London lockdown. Platinum Performing Arts is inviting children aged 9-18 from the Enfield community to take part in free creative workshops at Millfield House - pottery, dance, poetry, spoken word, fitness & wellbeing and more!
A debut collection of poetry by Palmers Green resident Arun Jeetoo will be launched online this weekend. I Want to Be the One You Think About at Night is published by Waterloo Press. Jeetoo's poems have been described as 'agile, sensual and achingly honest' and 'pulling at the throbbing veins of love'.
A pedestrian crossing in Southgate has been transformed by local designer Dan Maier, who says she wanted to create something bright and cheery, introducing the essence of nature and its vibrant colours into our urban landscape. A second crossing, in Enfield Town, has been reimagined by Alevi artist Hasan Bölücek. Three more crossings are due to get the treatment, including one in Palmers Green.