REfUSE Café is based in Chester-le-Street but is no ordinary café. It has a community and environmental ethos, which sets it apart from many similar eating places.
On a bright, late October morning I visited REfUSE to ask workers and customers what is so special about this particular café.
I got a tour of the back of the café, where there was a big fridge and people were busy sorting out different food. They get much of it from supermarkets and I was also shown the extended kitchen which they’ve been able to pay for with European grants that they got just before Brexit came.
Miriam Skinner, Co-founder and Director of REfUSE CIC, explained to me how there was very much an emphasis on training and skills work with the volunteers, who work there and helping to build people’s confidence.
When was REfUSE opened?
“The cafe opened on 6th April 2018 although the organisation was founded in the summer of 2015, it let me run pop up cafes in places like the old butchers down the road in Chester-le-Street and in a local church hall and we also had events in Durham”.
What is the background to REfUSE?
“We started off by highlighting the waste from supermarkets and how much food was found wasted in supermarket bins, so we formed a community interest company, CIC, and the first events were with volunteers. We ran these from just from a house and arranged for pop-up meals in church halls. It is now 10 years we’ve been going!
“In 2019, we started working with primary school kids about not wasting food and how food should be valued and is important. We have also run advocacy campaigns about food policy, for example food labelling and the best before dates on food. We’ve also campaigned for the mandatory reporting of supermarkets in terms of their waste levels, which is something they do in France. We also campaign against giving waste food to pigs”.
What are the guiding principles behind REfUSE?
“We want to celebrate the values of people, places and food that have been overlooked. Food, people and place are all important and can make a real difference”.
What is the true value of food?
“As a social glue, something that brings people together and the sum of labour, land, resources and water”.
Workers at REfUSE
Nick has worked at REfUSE for seven or eight years, having started when he was attending college to learn skills in Maths and English.
He needed to do some work experience and thought working at REfUSE would be great. Consequently, he got voluntary training and got introduced to the work and the people.
Nick said that he has come up with ideas to make the place more popular mostly related to hot chocolates and hot teas and was able to develop hot chocolate suitable for vegans.
He clearly likes working there as people understand people with autism. He commented that it is great work and added that the people who work there are like a family; not just any team but more of a family and more people getting to understand people with autism can help people.
Nick has done some working in front of the house in the cafe itself and does a lot of that work on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As it was a Wednesday, Nick was in on that particular day because he was helping with a special Halloween event for children.
Stewart
Stewart washes the dishes with Meg and sometimes also helps dishing out food. He likes working at REfUSED because it’s a nice cosy atmosphere and people bring presents along as well!
Stewart has worked there for three years and he lives locally. Stewart used to be a volunteer at Beamish Museum in the cottages near the Methodist Chapel and at Dryburn Hospital in Durham. He said that he does just half a day a week since he retired and was a civil servant when he was working.
Stewart told me that REfUSE is an important place for people who come in. A lot of them need the food but hard times can happen to anybody and so many people are just two paydays away from bankruptcy.
Talking to the customers
Emma said that there was a lovely atmosphere at REfUSE and that’s why she kept coming back and that the staff are amazing. And it is good for her to get out and socialise, while she puts whatever she can in the box. Emma told me that the cafe puts on loads of events for people, everybody is friendly and the service is lovely and they know her name.
Emma’s family is from Leeds and so she didn’t really know anybody in Chester-le-Street as her family’s in Yorkshire. So, she volunteered at a farm connected to REfUSE, just up the road from where she lives and got to know Mim and her sister and started to do volunteer work every Saturday.
She loved it and it improved her mental health because she found that she could speak to her fellow workers.
And Emma added that she just loves the environment, that it’s lovely!
Johanna first came to REfUSE with friends and used to get a cup of tea. She made loads of friends and then worked as a volunteer having been asked if she wanted to help in the kitchen, washing the dishes.
Johanna has met some really nice people and she’s made some really good friends and even gained some qualifications in food hygiene. Johanna related how she went to handicraft down the street until she had an accident, but people are being great.
Like Emma, Johanna was not born locally, but rather she is originally a Glaswegian and finds REfUSE really friendly. Johanna added that lots of people come to REfUSE who at first don’t know anybody, so they ask people who are on their own if they’re OK.
Building community over healthy, affordable food
We often hear of how society is more fragmented today, as social media siloes us with its algorithms and populist politicians attempt to divide us in the pursuit of financial gain or personal power. Consequently, we also hear a lot of talk about how we should rebuild society and bring people together, to break down barriers between us and help us appreciate our shared humanity.
Sadly, a lot of what starts as well-meaning talk about building community never gets any further. However, in the case of REfUSE café it certainly does. Here we see real community building going alongside a concern for environmental sustainability all carried out with warmth and a concern for people and their real needs.
REfUSE shows us a good way to go forward not just in terms of running a cafe, but as a community and a society.
For more information about REfUSE and their work please click here.
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