Members of the Love Your Doorstop pandemic consortium — At Winchmore Hill Cricket Club are, back row from left, Emma Rigby (Love Your Doorstep), Emma Kolaru (Enfield Town Schools’ Partnership) and Clare Donovan (Cooking Champions); plus front row from left, Cooking Champions team members Elliot, Rebecca and Niki

Grant made to support work voluntary partnership

A scheme that has been helping vulnerable people across Enfield during the Covid-19 pandemic has been given a £10,000 grant to support its work.

The Love Your Doorstep consortium, made up of more than 40 local community organisations and supported by Enfield Town Schools’ Partnership, was set up in March to deliver a borough-wide programme to respond to the pandemic. It has received the grant from the London Community Response Fund administered by City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity funder.

The money will be used to fund core staffing and running costs and enable Love Your Doorstep to continue its delivery of support for a further three months. Emma Kolaru, partnership manager at Enfield Town Schools’ Partnership, said: “The pandemic has brought pain and hardship to people across the community but vulnerable children and adults, the elderly and the homeless have been hit hardest of all.

“We have also witnessed the extraordinary response within our community from volunteers, key workers and charities and organisations in the public and private sector who have supported everyone through these challenging times.

“This united response has strengthened partnerships between these sectors and support has been made available faster and been more effective.”

Dhruv Patel, chair of City Bridge Trust, said: “The Love Your Doorstep scheme is doing fantastic work on the frontline of the pandemic, providing invaluable support to vulnerable and disadvantaged residents, NHS and care workers across Enfield.”

One of the affiliated organisations to benefit is Cooking Champions, which has shifted from making around 50 meals a week for homeless people to preparing and delivering around 1,500 meals a week to vulnerable families across the borough from its base at Winchmore Hill Cricket Club.

Clare Donovan, founder of Cooking Champions, said: “The grant means we can ensure children on free school meals and vulnerable families, do not go hungry over the summer.

“We are committed to providing fresh, nutritious meals, made with care by our volunteers to these families, something that seems to have been sadly lacking from government care packages.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.