New café creates employment opportunities

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A new, state of the art café has been opened at the Castleford, Normanton and District Hospital, which is run by South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust. The café is managed by Catering Plus, a Wakefield-based social enterprise caterer, which employs and trains people with or recovering from mental health problems.

Catering Plus is a "people before profit" company that aims to expand employment prospects for people trying to return to work. It offers training and learning opportunities as well as the chance for people to build up their self esteem.

General Manager and founder Sue Chambers said, "Before establishing Catering Plus, personal circumstances had taken me of out the job market for ten years and I know how difficult it can be to gain or regain employment. Catering Plus enables me to provide a high level of quality, healthy and good value food whilst opening up genuine career opportunities for people who might otherwise feel excluded.”

The new menu at Castleford Normanton and District Hospital is designed to encourage staff, service users and carers to eat a healthier diet and offers a wholesome variety of meals that are home-made from fresh, locally sourced ingredients.

The Trust and Catering Plus have worked closely with the Wakefield District Primary Care Trust (PCT). The PCT’s Adult Obesity Project Manager Joanne Hodgson explained, "We have worked together along with Dietician Karen Thompson to develop a menu that’s varied, tasty and healthy, to make it easier for people to make healthy choices. All our food is made from scratch and we buy our vegetables locally from the ABLE project, another social enterprise which provides training and learning opportunities for young, disadvantaged people."

The café is open from 8am – 2pm and serves a range of hot and cold breakfast foods, lunchtime salads, jacket potatoes and sandwiches with a number of daily specials, including two vegetarian options.

New café creates employment opportunities

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