The Copleston Community Cafe offers home-cooked, culturally diverse meals cooked by trained volunteers, local chefs and businesses in a warm supportive and inclusive space. The Cafe also offers a wraparound service, so you can join a Caribbean dance-exercise class, a Falls Prevention class or a Life Writing session before or after your meal.
We spoke with Ann from the Copleston Community Centre to find out how local chefs and businesses collaborate with the Cafe.
How do local businesses and chefs get involved in the Cafe?
Soca dance group
Our partnerships with local businesses and chefs began originally during the COVID-19 pandemic — a time when our community faced unprecedented uncertainty, food insecurity, and isolation. What started as emergency support – when we first approached cafes to support a home-delivery service – evolved into long-term relationships. Before we knew it, we had
Nandine and
Ganapati cooking in our kitchen!
The support of these businesses, together with other local volunteers and chefs has had a meaningful and lasting impact on the community, not only by providing culturally diverse meals for our cafe, but by also offering cooking-on-a-budget classes that have given the community the tools to recreate affordable restaurant-quality dishes at home.
Can you share a memorable moment from the Cafe?
A local woman came to Copleston after an informal referral from Southwark Pensioners Centre. She had been a patient in the Maudsley Hospital due to poor mental health and first came to the centre to use an Immediate Emotional Support service. Her anxiety levels meant a gentle introduction to our other services. At first, she chose to sit alone in another part of the building with her lunch. As she built trusting relationships with other cafe users, she began sitting at the edge of the cafe and has since received support with an application for new accommodation and counselling, taken part in a cooking on a budget class and celebrated her birthday with a cake and cafe customers singing “Happy Birthday“.
What feedback have you received from businesses about their experience working with the Cafe?
The main benefit would be that they get out of their bubble at the restaurant and meet members of the community who they wouldn’t get to meet at the restaurant and who wouldn’t get to experience their cuisine. It makes them feel good to contribute to the community and itsa great exchange of friendships and company. It’s nice to see the community try different foods and flavours from other cultures. Giving restaurant grade dishes to the community at a low cost price to give everyone the experience of good, healthy delicious food is rewarding for them.
Nandine restaurant staff and volunteers cooking in the Community Cafe
What advice would you give to other community centres or businesses looking to start similar partnerships?
Be confident in your creative ideas – take a leap into the unknown and look what is around you.
Cross the bridge between the world of the voluntary sector and local businesses – we have more in common than we think.
To learn more about the Copleston Community Cafe, visit their website here.
The Copleston Centre’s low cost older people’s programme of activities runs weekly during term times. The programme enables older adults to stay active, engaged, and connected. Through providing access to affordable and culturally relevant activities, therapeutic support, and volunteering opportunities, they directly tackle loneliness and inequality, enabling people to live fuller, healthier lives. Find the weekly programme of activities
here.
Community Southwark’s Business and Community Partnerships Project
Learn more about how Community Southwark can support your employee volunteering to build better partnerships between businesses and VCS groups in Southwark
here.
