As well as feeding the community and ensuring our services are still available to those who need it, we managed to keep even busier while the centre's doors were closed due to lockdown and Covid restrictions. It was all hands on deck for workers and volunteers to completely overhaul the shop and café as we know it in a safe, socially distanced and covid-compliant way. They managed to improve and make the best use of the space. Painting (including some disagreements about the right shade of blue), pulling up carpets, building new structures, moving furniture out of the way - it was a big operation to ensure the much needed refurbishment of the shop and café went smoothly and that the visions for the new look were realised. With a clear and spacious one-way system now in place in our centre to enable safe social distancing measures, it was paramount that the feel-good experience of entering the building was maintained and with the exceptional hard work of workers and volunteers, we feel that this was acheived. 

Some of the improvements to the centre included: 

• new flooring in the shop and cafe
• freshly painted walls
• donation window in the shop for safer, no-contact transactions 
• brand new kitchen equipment
• dedicated space for activities

That's not all, but we want to keep some surprises for a grand re-opening. We cannot wait to welcome you all back with open arms so you can see the improvements yourself. Whenever that may be, the kettle will be on, there'll be cakes to taste, bargains to be had and of course, familiar and friendly faces there to greet you. 

All of this work was made possible by the kindness and generosity of Veolia and Equifax as well as the helping hands of our wonderful volunteers.