On Monday of this week, our MD joined staff members in our Wokingham based warehouse to find unwanted stock items that could be repurposed for use at the local Kimel Community Café. With very kind permission from one of our clients Kimm and Miller, the team removed 10 pallet loads of their unwanted stock to donate, before loading it onto one of our ShipArtTM vehicles and delivering it to the Wokingham based café.
This astonishing site currently being fitted out, will be an extraordinary venue offering so much more than a nice cup of coffee. As part of the Kimel Foundation, the café will work in line with charity founder Nick Lander’s vision and mission to “provide supported employment for the neurodivergent community, and to provide a steppingstone training experience, to give our young people an opportunity to transition into mainstream employment”. In addition, it will aim to help local charities in their quest to alleviate food poverty in Wokingham.
The café which will seat 10-15 people inside and 15 outside, will have a training kitchen for students. The café will offer young individuals with autism, a 12-week programme that focuses on personal development and will be followed up with six further weeks of on-the-job coaching. After this enhanced training they will have developed vital life skills and be experienced enough to look for full-time employment.
At an on-site visit the health and environmental benefits of art on walls at places of employment was discussed, and it is now very possible that the café will not only hang artwork by local artists but may also offer art and creative workshops in the evening.
What a great example of local social and environmental awareness and activity in an inclusive setting.
