Crowborough’s Mayor, Cllr Ron Reed, formally opened Crowborough Community Centre’s new Gallery Café yesterday at a function attended by civic guests, representative of the centre’s user groups and local business leaders.
Sussex Community Development Association (SCDA) took over the running of the cafe in the spring in a joint venture with Crowborough Community Association. Since then, chef Alistair Tibble has been refining his menus and working hard to provide visitors and community centre clubs and user groups with good quality, reasonably priced meals, snacks and beverages.
Crowborough Community Association chairman, Chantal Wilson, said:
We are delighted to be working with SCDA which is a highly respected local charity. There is a strong synergy between our two organisations, both of which exist to serve the community on a non-profit basis.
Before the opening ceremony and finger buffet, Daniel Stewart-Roberts, SCDA’s Director of Finance and Infrastructure, made a presentation covering the range of his organisation’s community based projects and support services in East Sussex. He said the Gallery Café gave SCDA a “bridgehead” from which it can expand its work in the northern part of the county.
Community Centre manager, Lorna Dowson Collins, also gave a presentation in which she gave details of the Gallery Café’s menus and pricing structures for both community and business users. She also outlined plans to redesign the café area using money raised by the Waitrose Green Tokens scheme and gave details of future events, including a special Halloween pizza and cupcake baking experience during half term for young people.
