Charity joins with Art Metro in cafe venture
The welcoming smell of coffee and fresh baking is about to return to Art Metro as its cafe is resurrected by the Laura Fergusson Trust.
The trust is a registered charity that provides traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, as well as 24-hour residential care for people with long-term disabilities.
Since 2015, it has been running a successful catering company called Can Do Catering. Now, with the help of Art Metro owner Simon Walmisley, the trust is adding to its food services with ‘‘Can Do Cafe’’.
Art Metro ran its own cafe until a couple of years ago, when it poured its final coffee to focus fully on lessons.
Classes for all ages and abilities are held at the Papanui Rd studio on weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings.
Art Metro will continue to focus on teaching while the Laura Fergusson Trust operates the cafe at the front of the studio, employing one able-bodied barista and a rotating roster of employees with a disability.
The cafe is set to hit the ground running when it opens at the end of the month thanks to a wellhoned menu prepared by the trust’s catering arm and the support of local coffee experts at Underground Coffee, who are supplying the machines, training and beans.
All food will be made fresh and options are in place to cover dietary needs of all kinds, with vegan and gluten-free fare like chia seed puddings and quinoa muffins served alongside an array of biscuits, slices, quiches, pies, bagels and wraps.
Laura Fergusson Trust chief executive Kathryn Jones says the cafe aims to help meet the high demand for work from people with disabilities, whose efforts have already proven commercially viable at Can Do Catering.
‘‘We’re really excited our social enterprise is now extending to a cafe,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s a full, proper cafe and anyone from the art classes will be able to enjoy a coffee and bite to eat, as well as anyone off the street.’’
❚ Can Do Cafe will be open weekdays 8am-2.30pm from March 1 or before. Visit them at Art Metro, 465 Papanui Rd, Papanui, or explore some of the menu options at candocatering.co.nz. To find out about art lessons at Art Metro, visit artmetro.co.nz.