Cooking Champions has helped turn a disused and empty space behind Edmonton Green Library into a multifunctional garden

Cooking Champions volunteers at the community garden

A community garden where people can both grow and cook their own food while socialising and learning has been officially opened in Edmonton Green.

Cooking Champions, a social enterprise which runs a foodbank and community kitchen in Ponders End, has helped turn a disused and empty space behind Edmonton Green Library into a multifunctional garden.

At the launch event yesterday (Wednesday 17^th) Clare Donovan from Cooking Champions said she was “absolutely delighted” to open the garden after “transforming” the space and told the Dispatch: “It is a community space with a youth focus, learning how to grow food and how to cook food using our outdoor kitchen, and with strong links to literacy.

“The vision is to have multiple sessions every week with age appropriate lessons and courses for teenagers, and free lunches for everyone in the community.

“We will incorporate what we are growing in the garden into the food we are serving.”

The space won’t just be used by young people, however, with groups of older residents also invited to get involved.

Enfield Council, which owns the space, awarded the contract to run it to Cooking Champions using funding from public health grants, including the North Central London NHS Integrated Care Board’s inequalities fund and a fund used to tackle obesity locally.

Food grown at the garden will be used to create free lunches

At Wednesday’s launch event, Chinelo Anyanwu, the council’s cabinet member for environment, culture and public spaces, cut the ribbon on the garden and said: “To know there is this transformational space where we can eat and learn and have some breathing space, is excellent.

“Cooking Champions have done incredible work and are doing amazing things leading on this.”

Interested groups can contact Cooking Champions to book a session in the community garden:
Email [email protected]

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.