Dana Cafe has been an integral part of the local community for 7 years. It has provided a safe space for people to wind down, meet friends over delicious coffee, tea and veggie food. As a values led business we have tried to serve our community as best we can by creating a friendly inclusive environment for all people involved in the cafe from customers to staff members. Dana means generosity in Sanskrit. Generosity has been a core value from the start. We have always tried to stay as affordable as possible while offering great quality and hospitable atmosphere. We regularly give to local causes as well as raising funds to help people on need internationally. We are so happy and proud of what we have created, what we do and how we do it. We are now in a position of having to ask for help from our community and hope that this time we are the recipients of the generosity of our lovely community.
Why do we find ourselves in this position?
A bit of context
Dana Opened in May 2017 thanks to the generosity of many people. The name Dana (generosity) was chosen to honour and remember that fact that the café was open thanks to peoples generosity as well as a reminder that the aim of the café is to create community and give away profits worthy causes. With Generosity, Kindness and Community as our core values we have ran an enterprise that has benefitted many people. Clearly we have created a great atmosphere for customers, but also we have created a friendly working environment where people feel safe and valued, a rare thing in hospitality. We have prioritise having an abundance of staff over trying to squeeze the life out of our team in order to make money. On the whole that model has paid off from the point of view of people enjoying working here. It has also worked financially until…
Back in June 2022 we had to start paying VAT meaning 20% of all our takings studently had to go to HMRC every 3 months. We had put our prices up in accordance with general inflation but we didn't feel conformable adding VAT on top of that. Consequently for months now we have been absorbing VAT bills with our reserves. Of course that was never going to be viable and now we are at a point where we can no longer afford that expense. As far as we can see we have two options: we sell the business pay our debts and move on; or we call for help from our community and push on.
In a way the easiest option would be to close and call it a day, but so many of us love this place so much to let it close just like that. There is so much love flowing through Dana that it feels very wrong to close. We still have it in us to keep serving the community, we just need a little push.
Moving Forward
If we can get the money we need to keep the cafe open we have a plan to make it sustainable so we do not find ourselves in the same precarious situation.
We have very much resisted changing things too much as what we do is very much appreciated by many and because we have wanted to keep all our staff on. Sadly though that business model no longer works (because of VAT). So we have to reduce the amount of hours our staff work and for some of them that means the end of their time with us. With less staff we will also have to simplify our menu, but have no fear as we will keep the best sellers. We have a viable plan to move forward with but without your help we cannot move through with it.
If you love Dana Cafe and have benefited from the atmosphere we have created over the years please help us with as little or as much as you can. Help us keep this precious place alive so we can keep serving our community.
How can you help?
There are number of ways you can help: gifting us money, help us run fundraiser events with a skill you may be able to share, offer us a loan, simply keep coming to the cafe to offer moral support, a friendly ear, ideas.
We are planning a range of fundraising events including Open Mic Nights, Baking Classes , Meditation, Painting and more; little thigs we are passionate about and we can offer to say thank you for your generosity.