Freshly baked tea cakes and sausage rolls are helping raise vital funds for a beloved hospice through a tasty year-round partnership that’s just been launched.
The treats are being donated by the Wrexham-based Jones Village Bakery to be sold at Caffi Cwtch, the café at the city’s Nightingale House Hospice, with every penny raised going to support the charity’s work.
Open to the public as well as patients, relatives and visitors, the café plays an important role in helping the hospice generate much-needed income.
The latest initiative builds on a long-standing relationship between the bakery and the hospice, creating a steady stream of income rather than just supporting individual events.
Head Chef Ian Futter joined Nightingale House six months ago after a successful spell at Wrexham’s award winning Lemon Tree restaurant when he won a coveted AA Rosette for culinary excellence.
Before that he worked at a number of high profile eateries including the Cock O’Barton in Malpas and has cooked for a host of celebrities and TV chefs including Ainsley Harriot and Gary Rhodes.
But according to Ian the customers at Caffi Cwtch are even more special and he loves serving up treats for them.
He said: “It’s amazing working here. I really love it. It’s totally different to my previous career but it’s so rewarding.”
“It’s a different challenge. I am looking to prepare the right food for customers and patients and providing the right dietary requirements.”
“Essentially, though it’s got to be really tasty food but full of the right nutrients for patients.”
He added: “The tea cakes are incredible, they are absolutely beautiful – the best I have ever tasted.”
“Sometimes a tea cake can be quite dry but these are almost like a brioche – beautiful, soft and full of flavour.”
“And the sausage rolls are another brilliant product which are going on to our next menu which is to be launched in the next couple of weeks. I’m sure they’re going to be just as popular as the tea cakes.”
“Because they’re being donated by the Village Bakery, all the proceeds go to Nightingale House. It’s incredible what they are doing for us to help us get where we need to be.”
Jones Village Bakery Sales Manager Tracie Edwards, who also coordinates the company’s community activities, said the year-round café partnership reflected their determination to provide ongoing support for the hospice rather than simply backing individual fundraising events.
“We have supported Nightingale House for a very long time and when we came to do a tour of the hospice and saw what they do to care for people, it just pulled on everyone’s heart strings,” she said.
“It’s really important for us to support the wonderful work that they do here because we know how much it costs to provide the care for patients and their relatives at a really difficult time in their lives.”
“Over the years lots of people connected with the Village Bakery, the staff and their families, have been helped by Nightingale House.”
“You talk to anybody working for us and they all know somebody who’s been here or been touched by this place. It’s really special.”
“We have found different ways of supporting the hospice like providing Welsh Cakes and sausage rolls for people taking part in the Midnight Walk fundraiser.”
“Our supply chain coordinator Jack Davies is in the dance competition, Strictly Nightingales, and we’re one of the companies featured on the hospice’s Monopoly board.”
“Providing the tea cakes and the sausage rolls to be sold in the café seemed like the perfect idea to help the hospice raise money.”
“We wanted to find a way of supporting the hospice all year round, not just through individual fundraising events. It will provide a steady income for them.”
According to Sarah Povey, the hospice’s Corporate and Donor Relationship Manager, the new initiative was a major boost at a time when fundraising was becoming increasingly challenging because of the cost of living crisis.
She said: “This year, it will cost £5.6 million to provide our services, and only around 20 per cent of that comes from statutory funding. Raising the remainder is down to our incredible corporate supporters, wonderful community, grants and trusts.”
“As well as our retail shops, the café is such a huge part of our fundraising efforts to ensure we provide support free of charge to our patients and keep our doors open.”
“We’re incredibly grateful to the Village Bakery, it’s a very special relationship that’s grown and grown over the years.”
“They really see the value of what we do for the community, they are really invested and that means a lot to us.”
“Tracie is just fantastic because she’s been a wonderful support and is always looking at new opportunities to help us – going back to the drawing board and being creative.”
“It’s harder and harder these days to raise money because everybody is being affected by the cost of living.”
“Selling the tea cakes and the sausage rolls in the café is a whole new way of raising money. They are a delicious addition to the menu.”
