Bridport Chapel in the Garden Warm Space

Aim

A weekly meeting space where all are welcome. Warm hearts. Warm room. Warm meal. Warm welcome.

Our warm hub takes place in a cosy community room at the rear of a Unitarian Chapel.

Community impact

The Chapel in the Garden is located on the high street of a small town in a rural area.

For the last few years, on two days a week, we have hosted a Community Fridge from the chapel garden offering food for free to the local community and simultaneously helping to reduce food waste. (We are most grateful to two local supermarket chains for their ongoing generous support.)

For over 50 years, we have also held cosy community cafes on market days in our smallest room. Here visitors can get a cup of tea or coffee with cake and biscuits.

And this winter we opened a Thursday warm hub where we offer lunch, companionship and support. 

With many regular and new visitors and with the support of many kind volunteers, we hope to continue to provide a community space for the town all through the year including the weekly nutritious and companionable lunch. 

https://www.bridport-tc.gov.uk/warm-hubs-in-bridport/

Why are we crowdfunding?

We primarily need funds to cover our rising electricity bills. A generous local plumbing firm has installed new storage heaters which is very helpful, but we still have very high electricity bills.

We also need funds to pay for the food we serve. Usually this is baked potatoes or vegetable soup with warm bread and butter. The Community Fridge can be a great source of supplies, but it is very erratic. We aren’t sure what will come from week to week so we have relied on the generosity of volunteers to supply groceries with which to feed visitors. Going forward, we would like more certainty that we can afford to buy the items needed to give visitors a healthy and hearty warm meal.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We will spend the money on electricity to heat the warm room and cook the food in our on-site kitchen.

If our fundraising goes really well, we would also like to warm another room so we could continue to have a space dedicated to cheerful chatting, playing games, music, crafts and a big table for sharing lunch and also to have another quiet room where volunteers can listen to visitors in a calm, quiet space and ensure that emotional support is available in difficult times. We are also able to connect people with the local social prescribing team, peer support organisations and Citizens Advice Bureau.

This project successfully funded on 27th March 2023