Cup of communi-tea

Residents of Connexus independent living schemes in Hereford are enjoying their very own cafe at Bryngwyn Court.  Named The Inclusion Cafe, it is the brainchild of Bryngwyn Court resident, Maggie Byram.

The cafe is held in the Bryngwyn Court communal area and the idea behind it is for the residents to have an opportunity to come together, enjoy a homecooked lunch, chat and have a laugh. Serving light lunches, cakes and tea or coffee for the residents of Bryngwyn Court, Stallard Court and Richard Weaver Court, the cafe is open on Fridays between 12 and 2pm. 

A group of willing resident volunteers help Maggie with the cooking, serving and, most importantly, the tidying up! Residents can invite their families to come and join them for lunch, and all the money raised from the food and drinks goes back into running the cafe.  Maggie and her team also provide take away lunches for residents who are working or not able to attend the cafe.

To help keep costs down, the residents at Bryngwyn Court are starting a community garden to grow salad, fruit and vegetables for the cafe. And while everyone won’t be able to plant, weed and dig the garden, each resident has donated a packet of seeds, so it really is a community garden which everyone has a stake in.

When the space for the garden was being cleared, old pieces of crockery and glass were dug up. This inspired the arts and crafts group to offer to make a mosaic as a centre piece for the garden.   

The cafe is very popular with residents and regularly has up to 30 people attending over the two hours. Maggie is delighted with its success and said “I’ve always to run a cafe, so this is a dream come true for me.”