The Hub Cafe

We are so honoured and excited to be working with bemix and this is an amazing opportunity for us to expand the amount of people we reach, be able to offer more opportunities and increase the quality of support. Please share ❤️🙏

Our pilot bread-making course was amazing :) thank you to Andy for his time 🙏 keep an eye out for more workshops in 2019!

Help us get people who have so much to offer into employment. Contact us for more information 👌

We are looking for volunteers to help us save food from Tesco Metro in Canterbury. We have been offered a slot on a Friday evening (830-930pm) in which any food surplus from this store will be donated. 3-4 trays on average will be available and this store has a high surplus of food which if not utilised will be disposed of.
As a team we can’t commit to collecting this (mainly due to a regular Friday evening cake delivery to Ashford Designer Outlet)
How will we use this foo...d surplus?!? We donate to Lily's Bistro so meals can be made to sell to the public. By keeping their costs lower means they will reach their goal of offering paid roles to vulnerable people sooner. The trainees also learn amazing cookery skills and how to be imaginative!
We will be supporting Catching Lives with the night shelter as the colder weather draws in and we regularly donate to them food we cannot use. We provide meals to our volunteers. Some of our volunteers enjoy a home cooked meal in exchange for donating their time. We use the food surplus in all our cookery sessions with young people, families and students. We have some future, exciting plans ahead which will make further use of this food 👍
So if you are free one Friday evening a month to grab our donation and drop to Lily’s then please do let us know via email - info@lilysbistrocatering.com
See More

#trusteeweek continues showing the faces behind the organisation. Today we would love a round of applause for our secretary Sue 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 and a huge thank you from all of us 🙏
Sue has been a full time Civil Servant for 38 years now. A job that has had many differing roles including visiting and educating customers. Sue became a part of Lily’s through the Craft Nights due to her interests in all things creative. Once through the door the welcome and passion of an all-encompassing... love for the community meant that getting involved and volunteering was a no brainer!!! Sue currently organises the Canterbury Book Club whose meetings are held at Lily’s. In August she became Secretary for Lily’s Social Kitchen. Sue has an interest in and experience of Mental Illness. Having a son with ADHD which affects their whole life and that of the entire family means that anything that any organisation can do to help is a welcome bonus.
See More

Next week we have the exciting opportunity to speak at the event - Building Business with PURPOSE - a conference for Kent's social entrepreneurs. Jack has been refreshing his PowerPoint skills so he has been helping us put our presentation together. Thanks Jack! 🙏❤️

Continuing with #trusteeweek and giving everyone a peep into the faces behind the project, please meet Gordon. My dad who has supported us, cheered us on and done loads of washing up 😂 Zoe x
Gordon has recently retired and had a varied career. He joined the Armed services (Royal Engineers ) as a seventeen year old where he met his wife during the period he was completing his trade training as a carpenter and joiner. On leaving the services in 1977 Gordon worked as a self emp...loyed carpenter and joiner for some twenty years. For the past twenty three years Gordon had worked in construction management and retired as a Senior Project Manager. Gordons interests include reading, walking, sport and working in the family Bistro. Gordons role in the Bistro/ community kitchen is giving support to Zoe’ and the team wherever needed. This includes washing up, maintenance, external deliveries reviewing grant documents, assisting with events.
See More

It’s Tuesday, Jack is our trainee placed at Lily's Bistro and we have a cake delivery and a catering job to prep! Another week of baking up a storm of savoury muffins for Diocese of Canterbury and vegan cakes to deliver to Ashford. Shift ended with some cheese on toast!

To honour and thank our amazing board of trustees during #trusteeweek we would love to introduce our Chair, Nicky.
Nicky runs her own people consultancy, supporting organisations of all sizes on change, leadership development, coaching and all things related to people and organisations. Over her career she has worked with businesses of all sizes and in all sectors, from start-ups to international corporations. She is also the founder and chairman of the board of trustees of ...a charity, Square Pegs Arts, which she set up around 12 years ago for children and young people with communication challenges. Nicky is deeply passionate about participating in the movement for change that gives everyone has a chance or second or third chance to build a successful life. This ethos is absolutely at the heart of Lily’s Social Kitchen. Nicky’s passion comes from being the mother of a young man who is incredibly capable and also on the autistic spectrum. She started Square Pegs Arts because she noticed there were people, including her son, who were just missed or not catered for in many of the things everyone else takes for granted – ways to make friends and participate, access to meaningful work, a voice. Her son continues to be her inspiration for supporting people and enterprises that challenge traditional ideas or models. Nicky, who lives with her family in Canterbury, is the current chair of the Board of Directors, having been appointed in July 2018. Her son is one of the current trainees at Lily’s Social Kitchen.
See More

It’s #trusteeweek and so we are spending this week celebrating and sending heartfelt thanks to our marvellous trustees. This awesome group of volunteers give up their time to support our project and offer invaluable practical and emotional support. Without them our project would not exist. To start the week we would love to introduce you to Jane Lacey. Jane supports us with fundraising and marketing - she is a superb networker! Thank you Jane for cheering us on right from t...he start!
Jane has worked in marketing and publicity in both the private and public sectors during her career and has been on the Board of Directors at Lily’s Social Kitchen since January 2018. Her connection to the business is around autism, anxiety and challenging behaviour through her son who has autism and ADHD. He takes parts in the SEN workshops that Lily’s runs when the mood takes him! Jane works for the Kent Autistic Trust as a Group Support Worker helping to run the Women’s Support Groups each month. She is a qualified holistic therapist and has studied counselling, autism and other special education needs. Jane has also been a member of her children’s PTA and an Associate Member of Board of Governors. Latterly, she has also been part of a fundraising group for various local charities with connections to autism and administers a Facebook support group for parents of disabled children in Canterbury. On a personal note she sings in a Gospel Choir, helps run a disabled children’s choir and on occasion has been known to sing at local open mic sessions.
See More

Great kids cookery session today Lily's Bistro ❤️ carrot cakes and vegetable & cheese frittatas were made with much care and the cakes were gobbled up! Thanks as always to the families who come along to our cookery sessions 🙏

Lily’s Bistro are seeking volunteers who can bake! Due to some amazing contracts with some local, supportive coffee shops we are looking for keen bakers who can offer a couple of hours a week on a Monday, Tuesday or a Friday to work at Lily’s Bistro. An interest and willingness to bake vegan cakes as well as non-vegan is required. 🌱🍰
We utilise volunteers due to our work with Lily's Bistro to aid people into employment who may face barriers to employment. We are working towa...rds being able to offer paid roles to these marginalised groups and the wonderful people who volunteer for us help us move closer to our goal.
They have such a wonderful friendly team and there are some incredible benefits to volunteering.
If you would like more information on our project, our future plans and our volunteer roles please drop us an email at info@lilysbistrocatering.com
Please share!!!❤️🤞👏🏻👌🏻
See More

After School Cookery group for 9-13 year olds.
Get young people cooking their own tea! As a group we will make one meal and one sweet dish, then eat and clear up together. Teaching life skills and having fun.
Sessions are £6 (5 for siblings) a session when block bookings are made or sessions can be booked individually for £7 a session (£6 for siblings) ... If siblings fall outside this age group then do contact us - but we do work to ensure the sessions are pitched at a level suited for everyone. All children with all abilities are welcome
Payments are non-refundable and non-transferable
Contact us to book your space
See More

Afternoon Cookery for 2-6 year olds! Fun cookery sessions for younger children to encourage tasting of new foods, sensory fun and encouraging a love of freshly cooked food from a young age. Sessions will vary with savoury snacks and food and baking focussed sessions. As much as possible the sessions will be based on food surplus that we have, helping teach children on the importance of keeping food waste low
Suitable for children of all abilities and any dietary requireme...nts can be accommodated including vegan and gluten free
If your child has any additional needs that may need some adjustments made or we need to be aware of then please contact us when booking is made. We wish our sessions to be as inclusive as possible
To book for the term will be £40 per child (£32 for siblings) OR individual sessions can be booked for £7 a session (£6 for siblings). All payments to be made at the point of booking
Sessions are non-refundable and non-transferable.
See More

Half term is almost over and it’s been awesome! 😎 Thank you to all the families who came and joined in with our activities. 🙏we hope you all had as much fun as we did 🎉🎉 We made hedgehog bread rolls from scratch, we painted pumpkins...we carved pumpkins....we made spider doughnuts and Halloween lanterns...we made autumnal afternoon tea and did some apple printing! Fantastic autumn activities. We hope to see you all tomorrow at the Kings Mile Trick or Treat event!!!

Couple of spaces left for tomorrow workshop ❤️

Pumpkins collected! We’re ready to launch half term Halloween fun with pumpkin carving this afternoon 🍎🍁

We think our volunteers are awesome and count our blessings everyday that we get to spend time with them ❤️ But there are some incredible benefits to volunteering that they get out of the experience too. Contact us for details on any volunteering opportunities we have available. We mainly need people who can work weekends, people with finance/accounting/grant application/fundraising experience or people who love food and who would like to get involved with our food projects. 💚

Due to whopping donations we are all about the apples! So both cookery sessions included apples today! Both preschoolers and after school groups enjoyed making ‘handheld apple pies’ 🍎🍎🍎 The preschoolers also made some fresh fruit shapes, while the older children made their own pastry from scratch, chopped their own apples ❤️👏🏻 Lots of apple fun!

Miles had a lovely time being able to socialise in a small group whilst burger making. He would love to come back for more events. Thank you for making him feel comfortable and getting him to eat onions!!

P.S The breakfast I ate whilst I was there was scrummy �

Miles had a lovely time being able to socialise in a small group whilst burger making. He would love to come back for more events. Thank you for making him feel comfortable and getting him to eat onions!!

P.S The breakfast I ate whilst I was there was scrummy �

Miles had a lovely time being able to socialise in a small group whilst burger making. He would love to come back for more events. Thank you for making him feel comfortable and getting him to eat onions!!

P.S The breakfast I ate whilst I was there was scrummy �