Meeting with Olly on Northfield Food Service - 17.03.2021

Present: Amelia, Olly

Agenda:

  • Plans for Northfield Food Service (NFS) over Easter
  • Next steps for NFS
  • Joint meal proposal

Plans for Northfield Food Service (NFS) over Easter
NFS are taking a pause until the Easter Holiday. They have plans to restart over the two-week Easter break (w/c 5 April and w/c 12 April). They will definitely be delivering on the Thursdays and hope to do another day. They will confirm with us when they have decided.

Next steps for NFS
Olly would like to transition NFS to a pay-as-you-feel cafe, on a Thursday, to build more of a sense of community. Plan is to keep the cooking very simple - just one dish, at least to start. Would like to start the cafe in May, rules allowing.
Olly would very much like our support, particularly from our chefs, however much we would like to be involved. I noted that we are losing another chef soon, so we might not have a huge amount of availability, but I would ask if the chefs wanted to get involved to do some training with NFS. I also suggested that NFS actively try to develop and train people to lead their kitchen, as chefs are a very precious and scarce resource and are crucial to this sort of project.

Joint meal proposal
I asked Olly if he would be interested in a joint meal between Cooperation Birmingham and NFS as was proposed in our meeting on 14 March. They would be delighted. We did discuss numbers, as I know the garden can only hold around 50 people with social distancing. The have a core of about 30 volunteers, but more like 200 people who volunteer with them on an occasional basis, so we’d have to think about who we invite and how we ensure safe numbers.

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