Find out more:https://www.eatsrosyth.org.uk/
Our aims are to grow and share food, reduce waste, alleviate social isolation within our community, improve access to nutritious food, help the environment and improve food education. Consisting of the Community Garden, Community Hub and Centenary Orchard, EATS is a project encouraging people to get involved in making the town (and world!) a better place.
Our organisation starts and ends with the community, as the project is primarily run by volunteers, with only a small staff team, every project developed is done so with the community, from the planning of our new hub to te day to day running of it and the social events and training, it is all centred around the needs of our community, and implemented by them. We also find that many of our volunteers get just as much out of being involved as we get from them.
We understand the social and healing value of food, that is why we want to give everyone the opportunity to come for a meal (or a slice of cake), no matter what income bracket they fit into; and we do that through affordable pricing, community meals and pay-it-forward. We also want to give them the skills and confidence to make healthier choices by getting them involved in the food prep or a cooking class, or a group activity.
We want people in Rosyth to feel heard, even if that is just a case of filling in a questionnaire or listening to their comments when they come in. We want them to know we are listening and we are working on the needs of the town, so we take all feedback to heart when we are planning our social events, we regularly speak to our customers and so far the feedback on the new Hub is positive.
“Very nice place with nice people”
“This is my first time at the bite and blether. The atmosphere is good, the staff are friendly, and the food is good. The space is very nice.”
Although we are a charity we need our cafe to be profitable so it can further fund other projects, and finding the balance between a crisis response and making profit has been difficult. Many of our regular customers now think we are too expensive, while much of the wider community still think we are for low income groups and do not want to come in.
Due to the sensitive nature of many of our communications with customers, Dignity in Practice formed a large part of our volunteer inductions, with encouragin g active listening to help those customers vocalise their own needs.
Volunteering Induction - embedding the Dignity Principles from the start
Due to the sensitive nature of many of our communications with customers, Dignity in Practice formed a large part of our volunteer inductions, with encouraging active listening to help those customers vocalise their own needs.
“Just listen, so many in our community feel like they are not heard and totally unappreciated. By listening to their stories, we can gain a really good understanding of their needs and how we can help give them back their autonomy.” – Morven Summers