ST GERMAN’S CATHEDRAL EXTEND ITS ‘BIG TABLE CAFÉ’ EVENTS

The Island’s Cathedral has received funding to host more warm space events for the Western communities.

Manx Lottery Trust has awarded St German’s Cathedral, based in Peel, a grant of £2,500 from the Community Warm Spaces Fund for it to extend the already established ‘Big Table Café’. This event which is currently held every Monday afternoon in the Corrin Hall, is to be extended by an extra 2 hours where a warm space, tea and coffee, and a 3 course meal are provided.

A second event on a Wednesday has now been introduced thanks to the funding, during which the Hall will be open to the public from 12pm until 3.30pm (as a first stage and will remain open later depending on demand) and offers a soup and sandwich lunch along with light refreshments through the afternoon.

In addition to the hot meals, activities such as board games and crafts are available for attendees to enjoy. There are also frozen meals for people to take away if needed during the week, which are offered on a sealed brown envelope on a ‘pay what you can’ basis.

Dean Nigel Godfrey, Chair of the Cathedral Warm Welcome Group, said: ‘It has been a particularly difficult few months for a number of people in our community, as we already see around 60 covers each week during the Big Table Monday’s. Based on this number, we expect to see an additional 70 people make use of our events once the extra day and hours have been introduced.’

‘The warmth, food, comfort and companionship we provide to people is vital in keeping the community spirit high, especially during such turbulent times. For allowing us to support even more people with the funding, we would like to say a huge thank you to the Manx Lottery Trust!’

Stephen Turner, Chairman of Manx Lottery Trust, added: ‘The wonderful team at St German’s Cathedral have given so many a great deal of support, and the morale boost they will be providing to members of the community is much-needed at present.’

This grant is from the Manx Lottery Trust’s Community Warm Spaces Fund, which is funded by the Isle of Man Government. To find out more, head to: www.mlt.org.im/grant-programmes/