Boost Fund Stories: Oor Wee Café, Fife
Oor Wee Café
The Boost Fund is delivered by Corra Foundation and is a partnership between STV Children’s Appeal, Comic Relief, and Corra Foundation, and is supported by players of Postcode Lottery. Boost is currently open to applications and provides small grants for community-led organisations across Scotland supporting local people affected by poverty or disadvantage.
Oor Wee Café was established in early 2018 by a group of volunteers in Kelty, Fife. Kelty is one of the largest villages in the area, and faces challenges including poor transport links, high levels of poverty, and significant social isolation. At a time when Universal Credit delays left residents waiting weeks for payments and food bank access was limited, the idea emerged to create a community-led café offering support, food and a sense of connection.
Oor Wee Café has now developed into a Constituted Community Group with two main aims of prevention of food poverty and provision of a warm environment for visitors to meet up for lunch, as an antidote to social exclusion.
We operate within the Kelty Community Centre, offering a food pantry, which for a small optional contribution of £2 provides a variety of groceries including, tinned goods, bread, cereals, packaged fresh food and drinks. We also collect repurposed donations – a selection of donated clothes and surplus hardware goods.
“I love coming to get out and see people – very friendly. Very hospitable”
The dining hall in the centre provides a communal area for a weekly lunch of stovies or soup with hot drinks and cakes, provided free of charge. We offer our community practical help with direct access to Fife Council representatives and charity organisations that provide advice and support for benefit maximisation, debt advice, employability, budgeting and financial resilience.
Oor Wee Café has approximatively 20 volunteers with an average attendance of 14 per week. Roles include but are not limited to, the 5-member committee, food provision, food preparation and serving, transport of goods and general housekeeping.
We receive some financial support from the council, however we were advised that we should mitigate the risk of running out of funds by making applications to other benefactors, such as Corra. We found The Boost application procedure was straightforward and easy to use.
Many thanks to Oor Wee Cafe for writing this piece for us. You can follow them and find out more: https://www.facebook.com/OorWeeCafe/
Boost is now open! Apply here.
