The Wellbeing Cafe is part of the Neighbourhood Nosh project. It was established not so long ago near the beginning of Covid. Neighbourhood Nosh intends to make sure that the customers who come to the cafe are able to eat healthy food either for free or for a small donation. So far this seems to have been successful as more people are coming to the cafe and it’s becoming better known.
1. How was the Wellbeing Café first established in Primrose Hill?
Near the start of Covid, a group of local volunteers, mainly already connected with the Community Centre, set up the Neighbourhood Nosh project, aiming to provide healthy meals for local people unable to leave their homes. The meals were prepared and cooked at the Primrose Hill Community Centre using very generous donations of fresh food from Primrose Hill shops and other organisations: the Felix project and City Harvest. Meals were also taken to families at the Winchester Project and local hostels. We decided that the meals should be plant based and as healthy as possible. At one stage we were providing up to a hundred meals a week for delivery. After lockdown, we continued to provide the meals, but to fewer people, and in addition set up a free market one morning a week outside the Community Centre to support people who didn’t have access to fresh food. We also linked up with the local Foodbank at the Baptist Church so that those who benefited came from a wider area. When the Foodbank was closed over the Christmas period we provided food packages for the clients and books for children as presents. Since fewer people were now wanting meals to be delivered, in an effort to continue and develop the very positive community feeling that had been built up – and in order to encourage local people to make use of the Community Centre as a warm and welcoming place to come – we decided to open a café once a week on the same day as the market. The Neighbourhood Nosh Wellbeing Cafe was born. The Centre kitchen was too small to manage the cooking as well as visitors to the cafe, so we approached Oldfield, where we had previously run a lunch club twice a week before Covid, to ask if we could use their kitchen, since many of those who came to the market lived there, and we had continued to deliver to about 30 of the residents each week. Most of our early visitors to the café- and indeed those who currently come regularly- live at Oldfield.
2. What have been the highlights of you running the Wellbeing Café since it has been opened?
We have been delighted at how popular the café has become, catering for a very diverse group of people from those with babies and young families to older, sometimes lonely people who welcome the social opportunities it provides. Because we ask for donations only rather than having set prices, for many it’s a place where they can get hot, nourishing food once a week in a comfortable friendly environment – while for others it’s a place to meet up with friends rather than sitting alone at home. Seeing this diversity in action, watching the friendships that develop and hearing the gratitude of our visitors is a real highlight of every week.
3. What problems does the Wellbeing Café have?
We rely on donations of food but the amount and variety varies from week to week, so in order to ensure that we can provide our basic menu and bake fresh cakes and biscuits we inevitably have to buy in extra provisions and ingredients. At times some of the food donations have passed their ‘sell-by’ date and we therefore can’t use them. There have been occasions when we have been so popular that there just isn’t enough room to seat everyone who comes, but we generally manage to squeeze in a few extra chairs to make sure people are comfortable. We rely on volunteers to run the café and are delighted that so many local people are generous with their time but inevitably we are stretched when people on the rota are ill or away.
4. What are the different ways that you get hold of your healthy food?
We currently have weekly deliveries from the Felix Project and City Harvest – as well as donations of bagels and bread most weeks from Roni’s, and It’s Bagels in Primrose Hill.
5. How has the Wellbeing Café impacted Primrose Hill?
Primrose Hill is clearly a wealthy area but there are still people living in the locality who experience food poverty and have difficulties eating healthily. Most importantly, there are many of different ages who live alone and welcome the opportunity to regularly meet up in a warm comfortable place to chat with others. The café provides a place where there is always someone to offer support and help or just a friendly ear. Some of our visitors have been introduced to the other activities provided at the Centre, for example the films, talks and outings organised by Open House every Wednesday afternoon after the café closes and weekly local walks on a Thursday morning. In addition, a number of the volunteers have said how much they enjoy being able to meet up with each other and with our visitors every week. For many retired people – and there are lots of them in Primrose Hill – volunteering is an essential element in their lives.
6. How does the Wellbeing Cafe benefit from having Primrose Hill as its location?
Being based in Primrose Hill has enabled us to benefit from the generosity of local people in terms of donations of money and time. We have an amazing group of volunteers who spend hours preparing food, serving in the café, running the market and getting to know our visitors. In addition, we have benefited from the generosity and support of local shops and businesses such as the Post Office and Roni’s.
7. Which food is usually served?
Each week we serve a delicious soup, such as chunky vegetable, curried carrot or red lentil with bread, rolls and bagels; jacket potatoes are the main staple of our menu, filled with cheese, coleslaw, and beans. Our wonderful volunteer cook bakes fresh cakes and biscuits, such as lemon drizzle, chocolate brownies and plum & coconut cake and we always have fresh fruit and biscuits available. On occasions we also offer extras such as pasta bakes or frittata and pancakes with fruit and cream. We have filter coffee, a wide selection of teas and oat, soya and almond milks are usually on offer, as well as cold drinks. We try to provide gluten free biscuits and cakes when these are available from the donations.
8. Does the café attract people that live outside of the community?
Some of the people who regularly come to the market between 10 and 11 every Wednesday travel from outside Primrose Hill and visit the café afterwards. We also have a number of regulars who attend other lunch clubs in the borough and come to us each Wednesday. Although we sometimes have some quieter periods between 11 and 12, we are generally very busy.
9. Have you had any famous customers visit the café?
Everyone who comes is famous to us, that is if the stories they tell us are true!
10. What are your future plans for the Wellbeing Café and which direction do you think that it will be going in the future?
In the past we considered opening on another day each week, but realised that would be difficult in terms of food deliveries, cooking and finding more regular volunteers. A ‘singing for the brain’ group runs on a Tuesday afternoon, with tea and a chat in the cafe before the session, and has proved popular. One of the difficulties of course is that there are already many activities based at the Centre so finding a vacant slot is hard. We would like perhaps to offer themed tea and cake sessions, or even cooking sessions, to support different groups of people, based at Oldfield so that the residents there could benefit. But we certainly intend to continue running the Wellbeing Cafe as we feel it has made such a big difference to the lives of so many people – and we definitely want to thank our many, wonderful volunteers without whom it just couldn’t happen.
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