07/08/2026
There are many ways to feel lonely.
It can happen in a quiet house, but it can also happen in a crowded room. It can arrive during a season of change, when life feels busy, or simply when we have gone too long without being truly seen.
This week is Loneliness Awareness Week (Aug 3-9), and it has made me think about the role connection has played in my life—and in this beautiful business.
When I began Relish Mama 17 years ago, I knew that I loved food and that I wanted to share the joy of cooking. But beneath that was something just as important: a longing to create a place where people could come together.
A place where nobody needed to arrive knowing anyone.
Where there was always room at the table.
Where hands could be busy chopping, stirring and passing plates, while conversation unfolded gently around them.
Over the years, I have watched strangers become friends. I have seen people arrive alone and leave feeling part of something. I have witnessed laughter between people whose paths may never otherwise have crossed, and conversations that continued long after the last plate was cleared.
Food has always been at the heart of Relish Mama, but connection has been its soul.
Community does not always arrive in grand gestures. Often, it is built by remembering someone’s name, making space for another chair, sharing a meal, asking a second question and being interested and curious enough to hear the answer.
We all need places where we feel welcome. We all need to know that our presence matters.
This week, perhaps we might reach out to someone we have been thinking about. Invite them for a cup of tea. Share a meal. Take a walk. Make the phone call.
Small moments of connection can mean more than we ever realise.
I am so grateful for every person who has walked through the doors of Relish Mama over these past 17 years and helped create this community.
You are the reason it has always felt like so much more than a cooking school.
There will always be a place for you at our table.
Nellie
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