Community café serves up jobs support

A Hull-based charity is opening a community coffee shop aimed at supporting unemployed people back into work.

Jubilee Central Ltd, part of Jubilee Church in Hull, has launched The Living Room following a £650,000 transformation of a former city centre bank.

The café will generate income to fund programmes helping people gain skills and move into employment, forming part of a wider initiative to support the local community.

Award-winning chef Nick Hill, formerly of The Hispanist, has joined the project, bringing his experience to shape the café’s food offering and create a new destination in the city centre.

Nick, who has created a menu “in the breakfast and brunch style of the coffee houses of Los Angeles or Australia,” said: “I spotted the advert for The Living Room and I applied. 

“I see this as a blank canvas with plenty of room for creativity and we want it to be something different for the city centre.

“Everything in the kitchen here is top drawer, top quality equipment and we’re aiming to source as much of the produce as we can locally from like-minded suppliers.

“The kitchen is about the same size as we had at The Hispanist, but with more seating for customers. 

“During the last year I’ve been doing private dining, pop-ups and weddings. 

“We’ve got all sorts of ideas, but we’ll start with 9am to 3pm Tuesday to Saturday, maybe some private bookings, and find out what we’re capable of.”

The development is part of the wider Full View Project, designed to open up the building and attract more visitors through improved access and a redesigned frontage.

Alongside the café, the site offers a range of services including skills training, community activities and flexible spaces for businesses and organisations.

The launch marks a significant step in Jubilee Central’s long-term ambition to combine community support with sustainable income generation in Hull.

Casey Fawcett, events manager at Jubilee Central, added: “The front onto King Edward Street was just green slate and nobody knew we were here. 

“We started fundraising for the project because we wanted people to see the work we are doing in the community and the benefits of supporting what we do as an organisation. 

“It’s taken all that time to get to this point.

“What we want to do is train people up who are currently unemployed. 

“We will use the partnerships which we are developing to get them into employment. 

“We will train people in front of house skills, how to work in events, catering, hospitality, corporate, big events in our auditorium.”

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