Corrina and Friends Café to close to the public and be only for the homeless

18 November 2015

Corrina and Friends Community Café will become a venue purely for homeless and vulnerable people from 1 January 2016.

The committee of volunteers running the Mayfield Grove café, which opened on 1 May 2015, plans to close the café to paying customers, and instead offer a free ‘eat in’ food and drink service to those in need.

The café will open at times when other facilities for homeless people are closed. Exact times will be announced shortly, but are likely to be afternoons Monday to Saturday with the free two course dinner on a Sunday running as normal.

Corrina Young, founder of the project and the café, said:

We have been constantly reviewing the café since it opened, and we feel that we can better serve those people in poverty if we change our model. Our priority is always to help feed people who are going hungry,

We will still intercept surplus food and all of this will be given away to those in need – including in the café and in food parcels. The café will continue to be run entirely by our wonderful volunteers, and we will work closely with the many generous suppliers, businesses and individuals who donate produce and fundraise for our running costs. We have become a hub for rescuing unwanted food and would welcome closer collaboration with other organisations, including those who could use produce donated to us.

Since 1 May 2015 Corrina and Friends has provided:

  • 5,219 free meals and drinks to people who are homeless or vulnerable
  • A cooked two course dinner every Sunday for 30 – 60 people, who are either homeless or vulnerable in some way
  • 377 emergency food parcels each worth between £17 and £30.

Since August, one of the café’s suppliers, One Stop Shop, has donated £6,000 of food which would otherwise have been thrown away.

1 Comment

  1. I think it would be more valuable to promote the Springboard Homeless project which offers a much needed service. Where homeless people can get support and advice about other services and benefits. And doesn’t involve an individual’s self promotion so is truly altruistic.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Advertising

Advertising

Go toTop