What do you get when you mix good food, a sprinkling of entrepreneurship and a large dollop of old fashioned community spirit?
Cafe Me ‘n’ U – that’s what!
The new cafe on Beeston’s Cardinal estate is the brainchild of resident Yvonne Crowther and is the result of the £17,000 she received from millionaire David King when she appeared on the Channel 4 Secret Millionaire programme last year.
Yvonne says the Cardinal Road cafe, which opened in February, has been a big success. It not only provides food, but also a place for people to come and meet. She said:
“It’s working brilliantly. I’m chuffed. People of all ages are coming in, mixing and talking to each other for the first time. It’s really breaking down barriers on the estate.
“People who are by themselves and lonely come in for a cuppa and a chat. It has a nice feel to it.”
The cafe is run as a social enterprise to support young people’s skills, knowledge, experience and training in tough economic times. It is run by unpaid volunteers, although Yvonne hopes to apply for money to take on paid staff and apprentices in future.
It sells hot and cold drinks and sandwiches, paninis, burgers, omelettes, soup and chips amongst other things and is open seven days a week.
And Yvonne – an Olympic torchbearer last year – is not stopping there. She plans to run an allotment to provide the cafe with fresh produce and also run a plot at the local youth centre. She’s planning a gardening enterprise to run the plots and improve disused space in the estate.
And there are plans to run a community hair salon called Cardinal HQ. All three enterprises will run under the Cardinal Community Enterprise Project banner.
- To contact M ‘N’ U ring 2777779.
