‘I guess you could contact Help the Elderly, do some home visits… host a monthly tea party or something?’ Nathalie suggested.
Helena nodded. ‘Mmmm. It’s a good idea. But I want to do more. I want to create a space that draws everyone together, like Coffee Stop.’
‘How about the village hall?’ Nathalie suggested. ‘It’s always seemed like such a massive waste of space to me.’
Helena pictured the big hall in the heart of the village, an empty space crying out to be used. In all the years she had been there she couldn’t think of a single occasion where it had even been open.
‘Oh my god. That is such a good idea. Why haven’t I thought of it myself?’ Suddenly Helena felt awash with adrenaline. ‘Do you think I could start a business? A community café?’
‘I don’t see why not. You’ve certainly got the experience.’
‘How would I even go about it?’
‘I guess you’d have to contact someone at the council? There must be others who’ve had the same idea. We can do some research.’
Enthused with their brainwave, Nathalie grabbed her laptop and they started Googling. Similar projects appeared to be springing up all over the country. It seemed that Helena wasn’t the only person keen to tackle the so-called ‘loneliness epidemic.’ Filled with inspiration, they brainstormed ideas, scribbling notes as they talked: regular playgroups for parents, community tea parties, volunteer-led shuttles between local villages, quiz nights, supper clubs, arts and crafts events, cooking classes, IT lessons for those who wished to be more computer literate, a Christmas fair. The possibilities were endless. A thrumming energy coursed through Helena: that unique feeling that came with the seedling of an idea, a sense of possibility. Perhaps she had finally found something she could do to help improve the world in some small way. She felt filled with a sense of purpose, and more than that, a sense of hope.
30
BUOYED WITH ENTHUSIASM, Helena found herself spending every non-working moment researching her idea, using all the skills she had mastered in her previous career as an events planner. She created a list of actions she would need to take to see if the community café plan could be viable. Having discussed it at length with both Johnny and Margery, she ended up seeking advice from a financial advisor called Sean, who was a friend of Johnny’s. He suggested she would need to set up as a Community Interest Company, which would enable her to reinvest profits back into the local community. Johnny, who, like Nathalie, had experience setting up his own business, was a huge help. They spent hours working out exactly what Helena needed to do to register her business with Companies House and apply for it to become a CIC. She phoned the local council to find out if using the village hall was even possible, and was thrilled to find out that it was, in theory, but that it was subject to approval from the trustees. She rang up other community projects similar to her idea and spoke to the founders, finding out the steps she would need to take to get the ball rolling. It was more than likely that part of the hall would need to remain empty, while the other half could be annexed permanently into a café with seating. This would work perfectly, leaving Helena with a large multi-use community space.
With Johnny and Nathalie’s help, she began to piece together a business plan. She opened a bank account under the name Hambleton Community Café and spent two hours on the telephone being assessed for approval to operate as a licensed premises to sellfood. Slowly but surely, the idea of a community café in the village hall began to take shape.
Margery proved to be an invaluable help. She happened to be friends with Edna, a local busybody who it turned out was on the committee for the village hall. Margery invited Edna over for tea, along with the two other members of the village hall committee. This committee was the first port of call for Helena. She needed their approval before being able to approach the trustees. With Margery’s support she felt happy with her pitch, made all the more tempting with an enormous cream tea, a demonstration of her homemade baked goods that would be for sale in the café. She was delighted to hear the following day that they had approved the idea, and that the next step would be to meet with the trustees. Apparently, she now needed to present them with her business plan and seek their approval.
She was duly invited to the home of Roger Parkes, a local landowner whose ancestor had originally given over the land upon which the village hall was built, and who was one of the trustees. There, in his rather grand drawing room, she was introduced to the other two trustees, a local solicitor and a retired teacher. Fighting nerves, she presented them with her carefully worked out business plan, painting a picture of a buzzing community hub that would provide much needed services to the locality. Seeing as the building was rarely ever used, she knew she had a strong case. She could feel their enthusiasm increase as she talked, poring over the plans. She had hoped it would be hard to refuse her, and it appeared that she may have been right. There would be no cost to them, the expense of upgrading the kitchen, of setting up the business, would fall to Helena alone. If it failed, there would be no loss, just a village hall with an updated kitchen. It was difficult for them to say no, providing all the building regulations were met. The final hurdle would be the local Environmental Health Department. They would come and check that the café was compliant with their food hygiene requirements and give it a Health and Hygiene certificate.
As Helena drove back through the village to Hazel Cottage from Roger Parkes’s house, she couldn’t wipe the grin from her face. She felt absolutely buzzing with energy. It was amazing how quickly the idea she and Nathalie had come up with only a couple of months before had taken shape. It felt almost meant to be, perhaps this had been the ‘new purpose’ that the psychic had once predicted. The knowledge that she would be helping support people in need was all the motivation she needed. It made the late nights researching on her laptop, the frantic calls during her lunchbreaks trying to get through to relevant people for advice, the process of collecting quotes from builders for redoing the toilets, upgrading the central heating and water supplies, installing a ventilation system and a new kitchen, and the headaches she got when the numbers started to spin before her eyes all seem worthwhile. It encouraged her beyond measure to know that she had the support of Margery, Johnny and Nathalie, and even more so the support of the village hall committee.
When the phone call came a few days later to confirm that she had the required approval from the trustees, she literally jumped for joy. Ahmed covered for her while she snuck outside to take the call, and she was moved by how supportive he was of the whole venture, despite knowing he was going to have to find a replacement for her.
The first thing she did when she finished work was call Nathalie.
‘They said yes!’ Helena squealed.
‘You’re joking. Oh my god. So it’s really happening? The community café is actually going to be a thing?’
‘Well it’s got the green light at least. I guess I just have to decide if I’m going to go for it. I need to finalise my numbers but it looks like I’ll need to raise about £50,000.’
‘How the hell will you do that?’
‘Johnny’s mate Sean said that I’ll have a strong chance of receiving funding if I approach grants and foundations that are interested in a social return for their investment. Then the rest I’ll have to raise the old-fashioned way, with some kind of fundraiser.’
‘Well, I can definitely help with that part. We can throw an enormous party in the village hall. A barn dance, perhaps, or maybe a quiz night? Or a reeling party? We used to go to those all the time when I was young.’
‘Where will we find enough people?’
‘We’ll have to spread the net far and wide. Everyone will want the café to open. So it’s in everyone’s interest to support it. If we can spread the word and sell the idea of this amazing community space I think people will definitely get on board.’
‘I hope so.’
‘I know so.’
‘Well thanks so much for offering to help. I’m going to need all the help I can find!’
‘I know Johnny will be up for it too. We can get him to play the fiddle.’
‘And Margery on the piano? If only she could still sing. We could have had a night at the opera.’
