A CHURCH in Llanrumney hoping to build a new coffee shop to serve customers and congregations alike has managed to raise almost £50,000.
Siloam Baptist Church on Burnham Road already holds a coffee morning every Monday, giving local people a place to meet.
Now their dream of building a cafe alongside their church in order to better serve the community is set to be realised.
Necia Rogers, the Church Secretary, hopes that in the future ‘The Well Community Café’ will be open to Llanrumney residents five days a week.
She said: “There’s nothing else like the planned coffee shop around the estates. It’s all about building relationships at the heart of the community.”
As well as tea and coffee, the current Monday morning – which runs from 8.45 to midday – offers breakfasts, baguettes and paninis. All of the proceeds from these events are being used to fund the building of the coffee shop.
Maria Reed of the Baptist Church said: “We’ve worked tirelessly over many years for the coffee shop and we’ll continue to work to see something like this in the community.
“We’re very grateful for both what the community and those who come in give us – we’ve raised nearly £50,000 from people coming to the coffee mornings already, and of course that’s an enormous blessing for us.”
When it is completed, Mrs Rogers estimates that the shop should be able to seat around 40 people at a time.
The church’s plans for the café were first drawn up in 2003 and Siloam won planning permission from the council that year.
Many of the improvements the current building needed for planning permission have been put in place, such as new disabled toilets and parking spaces. There is no definite date yet for building work to begin.