Every Tuesday and Wednesday we are running a warm and friendly Pay-What-You-Feel community cafe with a focus on organic and surplus food. 10-4pm
We make tasty, homely breakfast and lunch and all of our ingredients are either surplus or organic. Many are both.
We don’t have prices. Instead, we run on a pay-what-you-feel basis. That means you choose how much you pay for your time in the cafe based on how you feel — and it’s up to you to decide what that means! (But we’re also very happy to chat with you about it.)
Using surplus is what allows us to keep our costs down so that we can run in the way that we do. Just as importantly, it minimises our environmental impact, reducing good food going to waste and getting it where it should be: on people’s plates.
Landfilled food and overproduction are major producers of greenhouse gases. We are in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency and our food system needs a radical shake-up to become truly sustainable for both people and planet. We believe in a slower pace of life that chooses low-cost, low-impact living and a deeper connection with the rest of nature.
Our aim is to create an inclusive cafe space for all to enjoy, regardless or their experiences, circumstances, or background. It is not about charity, but about providing a communal and warm space where anyone can spend and share their time over simple, nutritious, plant-based food that is healthy and sustainable. We believe that this can help to build a more connected, resilient, and sustainable community.
We are not-for-profit, but we don’t rely on grants, so need to stay afloat on our own terms. We rely on some customers paying more while others pay less. It is important for us that everyone feels able to return regularly, which means paying what feels affordable to you.
We are linked to the Hornbeam’s Food Rescue Project, and it is through this route that we get much of our surplus ingredients. Most of our organic produce comes from our friends at Organiclea, sold as surplus after returning from market. A few other essential ingredients are bought from workers’ cooperative wholesalers, such as Suma, as well as a handful of local stores.
We are lucky that we can support more sustainable farming practices by using organic ingredients while also keeping our costs low. Organic food is generally more expensive than otherwise equivalent produce for fair reasons — it is more costly to produce — but it is nonetheless clear that this can create an accessibility issue that needs some thoughtful improvement.
We run cooperatively, meaning that we reach a consensus as a group on how to use any small profits we do make, in line with our values and principles outlined above. We are always looking for enthusiastic people to join or collaborate with us, so please contact if you’re interested.
Following on from the success of our Food Rescue Kitchen on Mondays, we are stopping good food from going to landfill and cooking it up into delicious food to be enjoyed by you on Tuesday and Wednesdays too!
Do join us from 10-4pm for breakfast, lunch, drinks and scrumptious cakes – all vegan of course.
Thurs-Sun we continue to host the amazing What the Fattoush? serving Palestinian vegan meals, including supper time.
Cafe hours.
