Torbay Community Cafe & Help Hub

Aim: Our Community Cafe and Help Hub supports anyone in Torbay who needs a helping hand, a home-cooked meal or a safe space to talk.

Who are we?

The Ellacombe Community Partnership manages the Torbay Community Café and Help Hub in Temperance Street. We offer a safe, warm space to everyone. Our Café offers great home-cooked food on a "pay what you can afford" basis. Our staff and volunteers also offer support to anyone who needs it in the areas of food poverty, unemployment, mental health, bereavement, housing and benefits. At the café you will find a friendly welcome and a range of activities that everyone can take part in, including bingo, arts and crafts and an over-50's lunch club. The ECP also runs the Ellacombe Community Youth Project, offering free, fun activities to young people and their families in the Torbay area. The cost of living crisis has seen a big increase in the amount of people needing support in Torbay, especially with food, and we rely completely on funding to be able to offer our "pay what you can afford" service. We are hoping that this fundraiser will allow us to continue supporting those most in need in the coming months.

Community impact

We have an "open door" policy which means we will support anyone who needs help. Working with the Torbay Helpline and the Torbay Food Alliance, we provide immediate access to support for people in crisis. Over the winter, our Warm Space project has provided a safe space for our community to find food and warmth and friendship. People of all ages have taken advantage of our Help Hub, whether that be for advice on energy saving, homelessness, benefits or food poverty. You can also just pop in for a cuppa and a home-made lunch. During 2022 we had over 4000 visits to our Hub and as the cost of living crisis deepens, these numbers are increasing all the time. But our hub is not just for people who are in crisis. We also have special events and activities that anyone can take part in, including coach trips to places of interest and animal therapy sessions - one of our most popular visitors is Patrick the Pony!

Why are we crowdfunding?

We buy most of the food that we provide in the café, from the supermarkets and with prices continually rising, and our charges to the public being so small or often non-existent, we are struggling to maintain our current level of service. As we are a charity and rely on public donations and funding, we are only able to continue our work with the support of others. This crowd funder will directly help the people of Torbay who are most in need - those with little or no income, the elderly and the homeless.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We will use this money to pay for food which we will provide to anyone in need. We differ from a food bank in that we only provide cooked meals - catering mostly for those who do not have catering facilities at home, or are unable to cook for themselves. As people only pay what they can afford, this means that everyone has the opportunity to have a hot meal at least once a day.