We are rather excited at Random Café. We have been nominated for an Audentior Award!!
“The 2019 Audentior Awards recognise and celebrate the commitment, hard work and achievements of local people and organisations who are actively making Watford a better place to live and work in.”
There are 8 categories: Carer of the year, Charity worker of the year, Public service award, Pride in Watford, Young achiever of the year, Contribution to sport and healthy living, Chairman’s culture award and the Mayor’s award.
Random Café have been nominated for the Pride in Watford category. We won’t find out until October if we’ve won so watch this space! We would like to say a huge thank you to all those who nominated us and who have supported Random Café since it’s launch two years ago.
If you would like to know more about the awards and the other finalist click here Audentior Awards
Saturday 31st August was the first Random Boat Trip. 33 Guests boarded Sheldrake III and we set off on a relaxing journey along the Grand Union Canal. We cast off at 3 pm heading towards Watford. The Crew are all Volunteers from the Waterways Experiences at Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead. Waterways Experiences are are a registered charity and operate three large canal boats from a beautifully landscaped boatyard on the Grand Union Canal. As well as day trips all year round, they provide very special holidays for teenagers with learning difficulties or other disadvantages.
Sheldrake III
We were given a short talk on what to expect on our trip and given the health and safety rules of the boat. The Crew were wonderful and made everyone feel very relaxed and welcome. Some of our party gave the Crew a hand operating the locks and even had a go at steering the narrow boat along the canal.
We do like to make sure no one goes hungry at Random Café and there were lots of snacks for all tastes to enjoy. One of our guests celebrated their birthday and were treated to a chorus of Happy Birthday with chocolate cake for all. We had rescued lots of tubs of clotted cream so scones and jam were enjoyed too. Very yummy!!
Everyone had such a lovely time we have already booked our next trip this time with a chip supper.
Dates for our next trip will be released soon. If you would like early bird access have a look at our membership page for detail of how to get news of events first and discounts for tickets.
We have a new design in our Redbubble range. This cheerful design is available on a wide variety of merchandise. You can own your very own Random goodies.
Random Café has come a long way since its inception two years ago on 1st August 2017.
This year our team of volunteers have given over 1400 hours of their time to sort, weigh, cook, bake and prepare everything needed to bring the cafe to over 1900 customers. Thank you to everyone for your help and support this year and for making Random Café the successful, welcoming community café that it is.
This time last year the whole team were very busy planning the catering for a wedding. This was the first big catering event for Random Café. Sinéad and Alex, the happy couple, had asked for a hot Indian themed buffet with dessert table to follow. Being a waste food café and part of The Real Junk Food Project we manged to intercept most of the ingredients, bought the extra bits and the cooking commenced. There were some challenges on the day, the Random team are amazingly resourceful and did an amazing job. Everything looked fantastic and the Bride, Groom and guests loved it.
In the last twelve months Random Café has held several other events including Garston Park Fun Day, Holywell Festival, an opening for the ReUse Centre for Hertfordshire County Council and our very own Afternoon Tea event at Watford Museum. This was our first ticketed event and it sold out very quickly. The museum is a great venue and I’m sure we will hold more events there in the future.
We have, sadly had to say goodbye to our original two venues West Watford Community Centre and Centrepoint Community Centre this year and recently made the move to one venue for our cafés – Meriden Community Centre. It’s been lovely forming relationships within the community and this year they have grown further. The Meriden Residents Committee asked us to join them for an Easter Event for the children in the local area. A fun event with an Easter Bonnet competition, Easter Eggs and Easter themed treats from us.
Back in March we launched our Supporting Membership. This has been a great success with 21 members and some great prizes. If you would like to join in, have a look at our membership page for details.
Here are just some of the prizes we have given away to the lucky winners.
Our main aim is still a sustainable one – saving food waste, and this year we have saved even more. A huge 28,463 Kilograms of food has been saved from going to landfill in two years. That’s the same weight as 5 elephants.
This Saturday we celebrated our second birthday. We had a free raffle where everyone won a prize, games and of course birthday cake. We are lucky to have some fantastic bakers within our team. Jenny made this fabulous birthday cake, with rainbow layers hidden inside, and Nici made, her now famous chocolate balls. (It’s not a true celebration without cake and chocolate balls.) It was a lovely afternoon and a the café had a wonderful atmosphere.
We were joined by the Deputy Mayor, Karen Collett, who kindly helped us draw our raffle and made a very flattering speech praising Random Café and all its volunteers.
So what does the next year hold for Random Café? We are going to keep looking for our full time home, build our relationship with the local community, save more food from landfill and start more sustainability projects.
After our hiccup of not having enough volunteers last week we are back at The Meriden this Saturday. We will be there from 1pm till 3pm with our café and mini market.
Could you become a food waste hero and volunteer for Random Café? Come along and find out more at our next café.
On 29th June Random Café join the first Holywell Festival at King George V Park. The weather was fantastic, very hot, sunny and dry. We went along to do a stall offering pay as you feel refreshments. Lots of our volunteers gave up their afternoon to provide cold drinks, tea, coffee, cakes and crisps. We also had chocolate but, as you can imagine, it really didn’t like the weather.
We were treated to live music with a variety of local bands. The music gave the day a really happy, holiday atmosphere.
Random Café were just one of the places you could get food at the Holywell Festival. There was a wide selection from falafel wraps to ice cream to jacket potatoes.
One of the stalls that really caught our eye was Cycling without Age. This is a fantastic group of volunteers that help older people across Watford experience the outdoors and nature close-up with their fabulous trishaw cycling scheme. The trishaws are battery assisted and Nici and Myself went for a ride round King George V park. It was a great experience and such a great project. The rides are free with the trishaws currently based at Watford Cycle Hub. You can find Watford Cycle Hub next to the Holywell Community Centre.
Thank you to everyone who visited our stall to chat to us we really enjoyed our afternoon and hope to join everyone again next year.
A huge congratulations to all the organisers for a successful first Festival and a fun afternoon.
Join the Random team on a relaxing afternoon cruising down The Grand Union Canal. We have organised our first Random outing on this lovely canal boat. There will be tea, coffee, soft drinks and a buffet included with each ticket. Tickets are already going fast. To book your place email randomcafeuk@gmail.com for more information.
Being a supporting member of Random Café allows early bird access to all Random events. To see our membership options and to join pop over to our membership page Random Membership Members can also receive up to 50% off event tickets and invites to exclusive members only events.
