From food pantry to community centre

The Rev Karen Webber and I began working together on the Food Pantry housed in South Yardley Methodist Church before Covid struck. You can read our story here.

As restrictions eased, we dreamt of developing the church into a much-needed community space. We decided our next venture would be a community café so that Food Pantry shoppers could enjoy lunch and then do their shopping.

As soon as the Covid restrictions allowed, we began serving cups of tea and it has all developed rapidly since then.

South Yardley Methodist Church has a small elderly congregation who don’t have the energy they used to have in their younger years. Volunteering in the Pantry gave them a new lease of life and, more importantly, a sense of hope that their church still had a mission in the community.

Karen and I talked to them about what they could do and they said they had been making tea and baking cakes for years and so the café was born.

We use some Fareshare food from our weekly Pantry delivery, together with the delicious homemade cakes they bake each week.

You can see a short video about our joint project above or  click on the link here:  https://youtu.be/3PeM–cvbw8