A COMMUNITY project and cafe in Tilehurst is seeking new volunteers to continue more than three decades of sipping tea and socialising.
The Link cafe has been bringing coffee and chat to residents in West Reading since the late 1980s, but is looking for help in continuing its legacy.
The Link occupies a small building next door to the Tilehurst Methodist Church on School Road, which also has a hand in keeping the cafe going.
David Orton, chairman of the management committee, said of the cafe: “The building itself belongs to the neighbouring Methodist church, given to them many years ago, and the church caretaker was originally housed there.
“He retired and moved away, so we had an empty building which we didn’t know what to do with.
“Then somebody put forward the idea of a social cafe.”
He explained that to get the project off the ground, he rallied round some of the fellow parishes in the area for help.
“We thought it would be quite a big job, so we contacted other churches in Tilehurst, all of whom were enthusiastic.
“The building was in a bit of a poor state, so we put it back together along with a builder, probably in about 1988/89.
“At the time, there were very few cafes in Tilehurst– I think there may have been one, but none of your Costas or anything like that.”
Cafe culture wasn’t as well-established in the area at the time, so it is a testament to the Link that it has continued to thrive as more and more have opened around the country.
“We weren’t there to compete– we didn’t have those kinds of resources– we wanted to offer a more general service to the community.
“So we set about knocking through one of the walls and built a new kitchen in the back, we got our standards approval from the council, and appointed a manager.
“Soon we had our team leaders and both our morning and afternoon teams.”
He explains that the cafe has a big team of people: “Three people in each team, with ten teams, and there’s a laundry team for the kitchenwear, and of course our bakers.
“They bake from home, making everything from soups to scones, and it runs very smoothly.
The cafe offers firm favourites such as soup, beans on toast, chilli, sandwiches, scrambled egg, and baked potatoes, as well as tea and coffee.
“We deliberately keep it so that the price of, say, a cup of tea and a sandwich is around £2 or so, so that even those who are rather on their beam ends are still able to get something.
“And the ethos of the place is to be friendly, and we feel that there are, for example, a lot of elderly people who live on their own in Tilehurst.
“They might not see many people during the week, so the Link gives them a place to go and do that quite happily.”
It is also entirely staffed by volunteers, and it also gives away any profits it makes as a non-profit organisation.
“There are a lot of people who like the atmosphere in there– we maintain that friendliness, and if we can’t provide a friendly face or somewhere to keep warm, we wouldn’t operate.
“The people who work there really enjoy it, it’s a fun place to work, and I don’t think they’d offer their time if they weren’t doing some good in the community.”
He adds that the cafe’s social opportunities for attendees are more important than ever.
“There are a lot of lonely people around these days, so we’ve seen a lot of encouragement from the council, for example, and we get quite a lot of visitors through.
“Sometimes it’s rather full, in fact– and we collect for things like the Christmas Tree Appeal and hold other collection points.”
The Link, being run by volunteers, is finding some difficulty in finding new staff, however.
“People tend to be working full-time these days, so it can be a bit tricky getting volunteers.
“That would be the only reason we would shut, as far as I can see.
“So we’re looking for suitable people and we can provide any training needed– we used to be able to open on Saturdays, which we would need more volunteers for.”
The Link cafe on School Road, Tilehurst, is open from 10.30am-3.30pm, Monday to Friday.
More details are available via: thelinktilehurst.org
Potential volunteers can visit: thelinktilehurst.org/contact/ or call 0734 013 9844 to register their interest
