Supplier says community cafe's closure is "a real loss" (From Haringey Independent)

Supplier says Station House Cafe's closure is "a real loss" for Crouch Hill

4:44pm Tuesday 25th September 2012 in News By Emma Innes

A supermarket manager has said that the closure of Station House Cafe is “a real loss”.

Andrew Thornton, of Thornton’s Budgens in Crouch End, used to supply the community cafe in Stroud Green Road, Crouch Hill.

He said: “At Thornton’s Budgens we are big supporters of FoodCycle and their aim to feed the less fortunate from food that supermarkets throw away.

“It’s a real loss that the Stroud Green Cafe is closing – I really hope that longer term they find proper funding for the excellent work they do.”

FoodCycle’s Station House Cafe will close its doors for the last time on Friday.

The cafe, which opened in August 2010, is being forced to close because of a lack of funding.

It has operated by taking surplus food from local shops, including Budgens, and then, with the help of a team of volunteers, serving meals on a pay-what-you-feel system on Friday lunchtimes.

Due to the flexible prices of meals, the cafe served people of all economic backgrounds.

However Steven Hawkes, communications and fundraising officer for the charity, explained: “As a result of the difficult economic times that are being felt especially hard by local community groups and charities, we are unfortunately finding that we can no longer run the cafe on its current model.

“It is a real shame and it will be really missed but the lack of funding for positive social activities and rising operational costs means that we are no longer able to sustain the operations at the cafe going into 2013.”

FoodCycle will continue to run its 14 other cafes across the country, including four others in London.

Mr Hawkes said: “We are extremely grateful for all of the help from our dedicated volunteers at Station House and we would invite all interested parties to get in touch with us if they would like to volunteer at one of our London Hubs.

“We also still have our contacts with supermarkets for surplus food, volunteers and customers in the North London area so we would encourage any existing cafes or volunteers who would like us to share these contacts with them, to get in touch.”