Ovenden cafe at heart of its community
A CAFE in Ovenden has finally opened to customers after more than two years helping those in need in the community.
Paul Holdsworth and his partner Alison took over the cafe from previous incumbent Trios in November 2019 to supply food for the on site social services and to create a hub for the community.
But The Hub experienced several early obstacles, including being forced to close due to repair works on site, then heavy snow forced them to close again before the Threeways Centre was shut entirely by Calderdale Council. Then the Covid pandemic started.
“We just couldn’t sit and wait for us to re-open so we turned the cafe into a food bank for Calderdale,” said Paul. “The food bank already existed and was run by the New Beginnings Church next door. This was run by staff who had to immediately isolate so we asked if we could continue to run it as the need
grew fast in the area and had to be filled. At its peak we supplied 200 parcels a week all over Calderdale. We also did the coordination of the volunteers that registered to the government to help with food runs, shopping and medicine pick up basically anything any one needed we supplied and fulfilled it for them all for free. We worked with Focus for Hope in Brighouse, Mothershare, Halifax Kitchen, Noah’s Ark, Ash Green School and many others in the area to coordinate as fast a response to the growing need that was appearing due to Covid.”
The cafe also helped feed 200 children each day during school holidays, and will supply food to up to 60 children at Moorside School during the school holidays, starting at Easter.
Now after a more than two years, the cafe has finally opened for customers.
“We have been open for deliveries and collections every weekend, just earning enough to pay our bills,” said Paul.
The cafe is set to host a craft club, as well as a hustings event on April 9 for the Ovenden ward. A cooking school at the cafe starts in June, while there are plans to start a restaurant night for budding local chefs to hone their skills.
“We’ll continue to support the community any way we can,” said Paul. “We have a duty to use our space to help who we can.”
We’ll continue to support the community any way we can