A non-profit community café will open in Barton Hill where lunch will be served on a ‘pay-what-you-can-afford’ basis. The long awaited Eatwell café, located in the reception area of Wellspring Settlement at the Ducie Road site, comes after the closure of the previous café following the first lockdown in 2020.
The café will be run by the new community engagement and a team of volunteers, initially they will be serving hot meals on Tuesdays but hope to gradually expand their opening hours. The new Eatwell community café forms part of the Settlement’s response to the cost of living crisis and from October it will be one of the councils ‘warm spaces’, giving people somewhere to sit in the warm, socialise and charge their phones during the winter months.
After running a coffee morning with older residents, community engagement workers discovered that the area lacked a warm space where people could socialise that was affordable. “If you go to a café on Church Road you have to pay up to £3 or £4 for a tea or coffee and then that becomes a space that a large part of the community just can’t use,” explained Community worker, Beth Hill.
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“I think sometimes people buy a coffee and they still want to stay out but there’s this pressure to buy something else,” added Mona-Lisa, who also works in Barton Hill community engagement. Although the newly renovated café area can already be used by the community, with free tea and coffee provided for groups, the opening of Eatwell will mean hot home-cooked food on set days but a comfortable, warm space for people to meet and socialise throughout the week, with charging points and free WIFI.
Ahead of the launch this Tuesday (Sept 20), residents in Barton Hill have sent in photos of the view from their window, which have been framed and hung on the wall around the café. The idea is to celebrate the local area from different perspectives and the creativity within the community.
The community engagement team will work with volunteers to create recipes that reflect the diversity of the local community, using good quality, healthy ingredients. They will be there to talk to people who need advice and can make referrals to other services provided at Wellspring Settlement for those who need it.
“We wanted to create an opportunity for people to chat, make connections and build community resilience. It was [also] a response to the cost of living crisis,” said Katie Griffiths, who has been talking to older residents as part of her job role.
After speaking with different sections of the community it was decided that ‘pay-what-you-can-afford’ could be a way to welcome everyone into the community café. They were concerned that if the food was free it may put off some people from going and that if they had set prices, others might be excluded.
The space is also multi-generational, somewhere for older people to socialise but also a space where parents can relax while their children play in the kids corner. “Everyone is welcome here” is the key message behind the new café, an ethos that fits well within Wellspring Settlement as a place that welcomes all sections of the community.
Beth Hill added, “It’s not a homeless shelter, it’s a café and everyone can come and use it. We thought making it free might put off some people because they’d feel guilty to use it.
“Pay as you feel, will mean there’s no judgement, people can come and get a free meal or they can pay what they like.”
The Eatwell grand opening will take place on Tuesday, September 20 from 11am-2pm and will be open to the public on Tuesdays until October when the opening hours will extend to Thursday lunchtimes.
Throughout the week during centre opening hours, the café space is free to use as are the charging stations and WIFI. If you would like to learn more about cost of living support currently available at Wellspring Settlement please see their website here.
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