Our pop-up “pay as you feel” café started at St John the Baptist Parish Hall in January 2019 and was really popular with the local community, attracting a wide mix of people and resulting in unusual and unexpected friendships. When Covid-related Government restrictions resulted in the temporary closure of the café in March 2020, the parish hall was repurposed as the Brighton Table Tennis Club Food Hub providing emergency support to those impacted by COVID-19.
However, due to the current infrastructure and run-down condition of the parish hall opening hours of the pop-up café and food hub had to be limited. In order for the Fitzherbert Community Hub to have the greatest impact, we need to invest in a fit for purpose space where our community can come together regularly to eat, forming lasting friendships, exercise and belong. Once we can offer frequent and more reliable facilities with a catering standard kitchen, we will be able to promote the service locally to increase footfall and fully meet the needs of our wider community
The partnership, through a grant from Sport England, commissioned Abacus to carry out a Feasibility Study which helped us articulate our needs for the physical space more clearly and work creatively with our landscape and buildings architects. We have continued to work with them throughout the planning and design phase and, having now secured planning permission, we will appoint our contractor(s) by Spring 2021 and commence the build in Summer 2021. The Hub and Community Garden will be fully operational by Autumn 2021.
