Beane River View Opens their Popin Cafe

On Tuesday 21st March the Mayor of Hertford, Councillor Susan Barber joined residents, staff and families at Beane River View to officially open their new café.

Staff and residents at the home decided that they would like to give their quiet room a new lease of life and so got together to choose what to do with it. After a great deal of deliberation, they decided to create a café where residents and their friends and families could meet together over coffee, tea and cake.

Roy Mills, the maintenance operative at the home, was very keen on the idea and volunteered to manage the project. Right from the off, Roy and the team made sure that the residents were the ones who guided the project in terms of the design of the café, particularly with respect to the décor. The residents discussed among themselves all the various colour schemes that they might want the café to be decorated in and also selected what kind of facilities it should include.

Once that was decided, and after all the necessary preparatory work was completed, Roy took the resident’s chosen scheme, collected all the materials and set to work decorating and putting the café together. The original plans were then extended to include an outdoor area so that the café’s services could be used in the home’s gardens during the spring and summer months.

The final stage was to give the café a name, so the home held a competition with the winning name - the Popin Café - being suggested by care home resident Grace.

The grand opening of the Popin Café took place on Tuesday afternoon, with the Mayor cutting the ribbon at the entrance to the café with resident Grace. They were joined by other residents at the home, as well as staff, families and friends. On offer were a choice of tea and coffee, accompanied by a range of delicious home-made biscuits and cakes, provided by the home’s catering team.

Home Manager Ryan Palmer-Fenny said “I would like to say a massive thank you to the Mayor for coming to open our Café today. She often visits the home, and the residents are so delighted to welcome her. I would also like to thank Roy, the residents and the wonderful team here at Beane River View for making this fantastic idea a reality. I am so proud of them all”.