News from Transition Leominster

Our wonderful repairers will be at Leominster Community Centre this  Saturday 9th July 10-12 so bring a broken item or come along to see what goes on. There is an opportunity to get involved as we can always use more repairers and volunteers to do various tasks.

Our message from plantastik cic:

Development of plantastik cic Café

We opened plantastik cic in May 2021; it seemed like a crazy idea opening a vegan, volunteer led café using surplus food, right in the middle of Leominster. Over a year down the line we are proud of our achievements: plantastik cic is a community interest company and has a strong eco-sustainability ethos. It is run solely by volunteers and all our profits, after we pay the bills, go to the community.

Open on Friday and Saturday, we have a loyal and supportive customer base who voted us into second place in the best take away in Herefordshire competition. We’re very grateful to all our customers. So far we’ve given over £1250 to food bank, £650 to student bursaries, £450 to Ukraine, as well as used 2080kg of surplus food that would otherwise be wasted, cooking approximately 3520 meals. We couldn’t do without our hardworking volunteers who range in age from 14 to 77.

We are now looking to develop the project. The café is not sustainable with just one main chef so we need to diversify. Currently, we are putting together a bid to fund a real community space that would evolve according to local or county needs. Maybe a Ukrainian refugee hub, a teaching space, an arts and crafts space. This could run alongside some form of café and make use of the venue 5 or 6 days a week.

The possibilities are many but we need people and ideas! Many in the community have expressed interest in the café continuing in some way, developing its outreach and securing a variety of stake holders. Hvoss are helping us to facilitate an evening event when we can share food and dream dreams about our future. This is to take place at plantastik cic 15 West Street at 6pm on Wednesday September 14th. Any interested people are invited; simply e-mail Hanna Woodall on: plantastik@myphone.coop

Community pubs and shops have sprung up around the county, so why not a community café. We look forward to your views and ongoing support.

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