Cooking Champions needs to raise £2,600 to be able to host its ‘community kitchen’ for another three months

From left, Heather Bredee, Ela Teague and Clare Donovan — The Cooking Champions team at its base of St Matthew’s Church Hall in South Street, Ponders End

An Enfield charity is appealing for help to raise £2,600 so it can continue to offer a weekly ‘community kitchen’ offering free hot meals.

Cooking Champions runs the community meals service from a church hall in Ponders End and says it had been regularly feeding 90 people between December 2022 and July this year, but had to pause the service when it ran out of money.

Each week features a different menu, celebrating different worldwide cuisines and making use of redistributed food from The Felix Project, which has a distribution centre in Enfield. If any food is left over, guests are given meals to take home.

The service is free-to-access, ensuring everyone in the community can benefit if they are in need of a hot meal, including those affected by social isolation, financial difficulties, homelessness, domestic violence and physical and mental health issues.

However, each session costs £240 to run.

In an appeal via social media, Cooking Champions founder Clare Donavan said: “We were initially funded by grants, but these have run out, and we need to raise some funds desperately to continue this service on a consistent basis.

“We need £2,600 to keep us running for three months. This will achieve a safe, warm and friendly place over the winter months when it gets colder and everyone needs a place to go […] if you can help in any way we would be extremely grateful, it will make a world of difference.”

The Cooking Champions appeal via GoFundMe has so far raised £1,725. To help them reach the £2,600 target:
Visit gofundme.com/f/ztumpz-community-meals?utm_campaign

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