A COMMUNITY cafe which offers work experience for people with learning difficulties – and have been delivering food parcels during lockdown – has been nominated for a Proud of Barnsley award.
The Snap Tin Cafe, based in Goldthorpe, had to diversify during lockdown as they were unable to open their premises – though this didn’t stop them from keeping spirits high in the community.
Anita Heatherglen, 63, of Rockingham Close in Birdwell, who runs the cafe, said: “We usually run the community hub for helping young adults with learning difficulties that need some work experience, which then leads to life experience, because they might find it hard to get it elsewhere.
“I worked at Barnsley College for 15 years with students who have learning difficulties and I realised that after they turned 23 there wasn’t much support there for them at all.
“When we’re up and running we offer arts and crafts classes, sewing classes and even ukulele classes – it’s all free too because we’ve managed to get funding sorted.
“We teach the importance of cooking and food hygeine and it always goes down really well – we’re open again now so hopefully we can get going again.”
Anita and others at the community hub have also been interacting with their elderly customers during lockdown by loaning them tablets for an ‘interactive coffee morning’.
“We decided to deliver the food parcels to those who needed it most and we’ve been in contact with schools and charities to make sure we can help,” she added.
“A lot of our customers are elderly and therefore shielding, so we loaned out some tablets and taught them how to use them so we could hold interactive coffee mornings every week to keep spirits up.”
Upon hearing of their nomination in the Community Group category, Anita added: “It’s a bit of a shock but it is nice that we can be recognised for the support we give.”
