A group of people in Chesterfield have recently taken over a community café space on a Tuesday.
What are we good at?
We didn’t have a plan what we were going to do in the Monkey Park space – and this was intentional! We all came together as a team and started thinking about ‘what we are good at?’ and ‘what do we care about?’.
What do we care about?
People raised all sorts of different issues they were passionate about, things like ‘the cost of living’, ‘recycling and waste’, ‘being healthy and well’ and ‘having friends’. People said they are good at things like ‘preparing food’, ‘welcoming and meeting people’ and ‘making a space where people could feel part of something’. We began to see the potential for us to co create something amazing as a group.
How could we help?
Then we looked at what was needed locally. This meant going out and talking to different people and organisations. Walking around the area, learning more about local resources, what was missing and how we might help. One of the ideas the group came up with was a Soup and Chat - picking up the left over veg from the food bank, and the left over bread from the supermarket, turning them into a lunch and inviting people to share it. What a brilliant idea!
Cooking up collaborations
Together we have started to notice who’s not here so that we can reach out to and make sure everyone feels welcome. This has led to collaborations with the Chesterfield Asian Association and with Children’s Week where we offer a space for families to come and eat, play and listen to stories.
Our collaboration with the Chesterfield Asian Association happened recently and was a great success.
We learnt how to make onion bhajis and a vegetable kadai! Absolutely DE-LI-CIOUS. Lisa, Nathan and Stephen did an amazing job learning new cooking skills, our customers absolutely loved it!
