A piece by Annette Cruiziat of the Vineyard Community Centre

The Vineyard is reopening… We can't wait to see you all again!

It's been a tough few months for everyone at the Vineyard with our shop, cafe, drop-in service and studio closed due to Covid-19, and the tragic loss of Norman Chingwaru, our beloved drop-in centre supervisor.

But we've still been collecting donations and offering foodbank delivery services for those most in need in the local area.

We are open at specific times to receive donations of food, please phone our single point of contact during the crisis: 07516 935655.

And we can now share some good news – we have re-opened Works of Love, our most popular community roots projects.

We're running classes every Monday (Skills Day), Wednesday (Social Sewing), and Friday (Project Day) from 9.30am until 12.30pm.

We are also preparing for a re-opening of all our other services.

We have started the removal of the existing brick shed and are working on our little extension.

It is going to provide a staff toilet and a new food prep area and food storage for our very tiny kitchen, as well as allow us to move our cleaning facilities away from the kitchen to a separate area.

We are aiming to get it finished in time for a hoped for September opening.

We urgently need more funds to let us sustain our operations here in Richmond and to improve our safety level.

Several companies have responded to the Covid-19 crisis by offering a matching program for all donations to charities made by their employees.

Please enquire with your employer and make sure you don't miss this matching opportunity as it makes a difference for us!

Here is the link to the Vineyard's website to donate.

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