Some Of Our Projects In The Community

The Big Christmas Dinner is where the cafe started from.  After a successful Christmas Dinner, given to anyone who wasn’t going to have a dinner, or was going to be along over Christmas had the opportunity to come down and enjoy a big dinner served by our amazing volunteers.  From there, the Fed Up Cafe was born and has fed people who are in financial difficulty, socially isolated or lonely.

We have run a Christmas meal every year since then, other than when Covid 19 restrictions stopped us.

The Christmas Dinner has shown to be a great event and supported by donations from our local community and local businesses.  on our biggest event, we fed over 120 people in one sitting.

Every year, we enter a float in to the Stranraer Scottish Week float parade.  We do this to involve our volunteers in to community events while at the same time we promote the Fed Up Café to everyone.  In addition to this, a few team members of the café are in the Stranraer Scottish Week Committee, which helps organise the events.

Previously we have won the float parade competition, whereas another time we came second.  This is a great accomplishment for our volunteers.

In addition, we also entered the scarecrow competition, making our scarecrow out of food items.

In a bid to help our service users or indeed anyone who has yet to use our services, we regularly arrange pop-ups.  These pop-ups are where local help organisations come along and set up a table where anyone can go and have a one-to-one chat to get the help they need.

Sometimes, such as after the Covid lockdown, we arranged a larger group of organisations to come along in the form of an open day.  On these days we create a buffet instead of individual hot meals.  This means that there are no specific times to be adhered to, allowing a casual approach to the day.

With the Big Christmas meal usually happening on a week day, we create a kids Christmas party.  This day is full of fun activities, dancing and entertainment.  In addition, there is a buffet for the kids to help themselves to.

All this is run by the volunteers of the café, getting dressed up and getting into the Christmas Spirit.

One of the purposes of the cafe is to help people to help themselves.  This can be done through cooking classes, helping people understand the benefits, both in cost and health.  Cooking your own meals when you are on a tight budget, so our classes are geared up to helping you learn the basics of cooking and also how to cook with limited ingredients.

After the classes, you may want to learn more.  If this is the case, then volunteering with us in the kitchen will further your knowledge and possibly, if it’s the direction you want to go, get a job in a kitchen.

When you volunteer with us, you have the option to work front or back of house.  You may be offering a few hours to work with us, or you may be with us to learn a new skill to get yourself back in to work.

Whether you want to work in a front of house roll or a kitchen roll, our mentors will teach you what you need and give you the experience & confidence that will help you in getting a job.  We even offer CV assistance to help you get that crucial interview.

We have all been hit one way or another with the Covid-19 lockdowns.  Whether it’s through job loss, furlough or having to stay at home.

During these lockdowns, we partnered up with The Community Reuse Shop to deliver hot meals to everyone who needed them.  During the height of the lockdown, we were producing and delivering up to 200 meals a day.  These were delivered by 4 teams of volunteers over a 3 hour period.

We cannot thank The Community Reuse Shop and their volunteers, as well as our volunteers enough.  Without their selfless volunteering, people in the community may not have been fed.

Back in 2019, we were nominated for the Dumfries and Galloway Life Awards.  We attended the event and were so thrilled to receive an award of “Specially Commended” in the Community Project category.  This re-enforces that we are on the right path in helping people.