The Norwich Vegans Café and Meeting space

Aim

We are raising funds to set up the kitchen in our cafe and meeting space.

We are excited to announce that The Norwich Vegans have been doing lots of work behind the scenes to move forward their vision of creating a permanent space for the group in central Norwich including a café and meeting space. Over the next few months, we hope to have the premises finalised and the first step for us will be to get the space ready. One of our main costs will be the kitchen for the café and this is where we need your help!

The Norwich Vegans Story

The Norwich Vegans was founded in January 2014 by Penny. The first meeting was attended by just eight people. As the year went on, more people started to join us, and we had to move to a bigger room to accommodate them all.

In 2015, the first Pop-Up Shop was held and incredibly nearly everything sold out! By the Summer, the monthly meetings were being well attended and the Pop-Ups had become monthly events. We had gained some dedicated volunteers who helped every month to ensure the customers enjoyed their experience, felt welcome and to answer any questions about the group and veganism. We had stalls from local vegan businesses who were just starting up and we also introduced a cafe and information area.

We also held our first 'big' event and a first for Norwich, a vegan BBQ followed by our first vegan Christmas Market. Its success meant that the following year would have to be held at a bigger venue.

Outreach in Norwich became a regular event, and within a few short months, the Norwich Vegans were well known around the country for their committed volunteers and number of people involved. 

Fast forward to early 2019. Norwich has become one of the UK's most vegan-friendly cities, and that meant our role in the community needed to change. The committee felt the time was right to change the direction of the Norwich Vegans and make us more accessible to the wider community. We thought a cafe and meeting space would offer this.

An announcement was made on our Facebook group to see what our 2,000+ members thought. We created a survey to gather more feedback and ideas. With all the positive responses we decided to go for it. We also decided to hold our last monthly meeting in December 2019, so we could focus on this project alongside organising our popular annual Summer Fayre and Christmas Market.                         

What we want to do

We would like to create a permanent base for the Norwich Vegans so that you can always find us. 

We want to run a safe and inclusive meeting place to promote the benefits and ethics of a plant-based lifestyle and other wellness activities. This will benefit local vegans and the wider community, animals and the planet. Our plan is for the meeting place to be supported by a café which will provide a welcoming space for people to learn about the positive aspects of veganism as well as somewhere for those already in the vegan community, or interested in it, to meet. We will provide workshops, education, community events and have space for local vegan businesses to promote themselves. 

We plan for the space to be child friendly, accessible to all and of course as low waste as possible. 

Some of the ideas we have for the space are:

• Workshops/talks - endless options
• Cookery demonstrations (including low cost options)
• Meeting space for groups struggling to find somewhere suitable 
• Vegan kitchen hire when café not in use
• Various group meet ups - mother & baby, activism, singles etc
• Social activities day & evening - film nights, pot lucks, book club, games etc
• Pop-up events hosted by NV or local businesses
• Craft/sewing/reuse/recycle - shared skills
• Volunteer opportunities general (including those with additional needs)
• Information / education point - leaflets, lending library, resources
• Free display area for local artists and businesses (art also used to decorate space)
• Local advertisement board - rooms to rent, car shares, jobs, volunteer etc
• Affordable food and drinks (all vegan, local, organic and fairtrade where possible)
• Welcoming space to help with isolation in minority groups
• Working with local schools (workshops, cooking, education)

 Why we need your help

So, here we are in 2020, a year that has brought many changes to the world. We are now a Community Interest Company (C.I.C.), The Norwich Vegans C.I.C. is operating as a social enterprise which means that although we need to cover our costs we will not be looking to make a profit and any excess funds will be put back into the project. 

Although, as a C.I.C. we are now able to apply for funding, due to COVID, all applications from non-COVID related projects have been put on hold. So, we have decided to crowdfund to raise funds to enable us to set up the cafe's kitchen - potentially from scratch depending on the venue. We need the help of our amazing community, and in return we have some rewards, and of course the prospect of the Norwich Vegan community being able to meet up again in our own space and welcome so many more people.

We are working with a number of other groups to potentially lease a bigger space within which the Norwich Vegans will operate their project which will have the benefit of bringing together a community of like minded people and we will keep you updated as this progresses.

We are aware that starting this enterprise in the post COVID world will bring its own challenges, and of course the space will be COVID secure from the start. We are also aware that times are difficult for many people now, and we are asking for help at a challenging time. We do however, feel that the need for community projects is more important now than ever, and that this project’s ability to bring people together and support small groups and businesses that may be struggling, will be well worth it. Anything you can give will be much appreciated. 

Please share our page how ever you can, and  help us make this a success!   

This project successfully funded on 3rd December 2020