Margery Hookings is intrigued after receiving a phone call about an innovative project aimed at combating loneliness. She goes to East Devon to find out more.<\/p>\n
The wonderful sweet smell of waffles is the first thing your senses pick up when you go through the door into one of Axminster\u2019s newest cafes.
\nBut this is more than just a caf\u00e9. It\u2019s Waffle, a not-for-profit community enterprise that aims to get people talking. Together. Its existence was brought to my attention by a friend who used to live in my village before he and his wife moved to Axminster.
\n\u2018You must come down and take a look for yourself,\u2019 he said on the phone. \u2018I think you\u2019ll like it. It\u2019s quite remarkable.\u2019 That was something of an understatement. The caf\u00e9 itself is cool and inviting. And buzzing with people of all ages.
\nIncredibly, the idea for Waffle came to Matt Smith, 29, one of the caf\u00e9\u2019s three directors, in a dream. But more of that later.
\nWhen I arrive, Tim Whiteway, 28, another director, is hard at work in the kitchen, creating the waffle dough. This is where the lovely smell is coming from. It\u2019s intoxicating. The Liege waffles are made to a special recipe from the grandmother of fellow director, Sophie McLachlan, 31. She says: \u2018My nan, who is from Belgium, was stopped by the Nazis when she was a little girl, but due to her having a certificate that she was christened, they let her go. They went into hiding and also hid Jews in their attic. My nan would always eat waffles with her family and when she moved to England it was a family tradition. I have always loved waffles, so my nan passed to me her secret recipe, which I\u2019ve changed around to make even better. It\u2019s great to be able to look at the public loving our waffles and enjoy a taste of Belgium.\u2019
\nIn the main street where the RSPCA charity shop used to be, Waffle is in the heart of community. Its aim is to tackle loneliness, isolation and exclusion by encouraging interaction across the community. Between 30 and 40 people have been involved in getting the caf\u00e9 to where it is now. There is a team of seven staff, including the directors, who are all paid the real living wage, and around 12 volunteers.
\nOne hundred per cent of Waffle\u2019s profits are given away\u2014this year to the Axminster Christmas illuminations fund (Light Up Axminster). Explains Matt: \u2018Through the power of Waffle, we wanted to bring people closer together and to help the community. Our vision is to create and serve the highest quality, fresh Liege waffles, along with local and freshly-made coffee, cakes and juices. We also want to use Waffle as a community hub to forge unlikely friendships across the community of Axminster and help to combat loneliness and isolation through the intentional and creative use of waffle.\u2019
\nAll three directors are friends and grew up locally. Their connection is the Church. Says Matt: \u2018Tim grew up here, he\u2019s Axminster born and bred. He was always known at Axe Valley School as Tuck Shop Tim, exploiting the Jamie Oliver years. He did really well with it. He\u2019s an entrepreneur, with a brilliant business mind. Sophie runs a charity in Kenya. She\u2019s from Charmouth and went to Woodroffe. She\u2019s always wanted to run something in the evening\u2014but not a pub\u2014that sells desserts. She had a Belgian nan who had this fabulous waffle recipe.\u2019
\nMatt, who went to Colyton School, moved to Seaton at the age of nine. For six years, he worked in marketing for Lyme Bay Winery. \u2018My passion is community,\u2019 he says. \u2018I very much enjoy the relationship between community and communication. For a long time, I had been looking at ways of bringing the community together. Cafes are, often inadvertently, prime spaces for social action and interaction. I wanted to see that done intentionally.\u2019
\nSo what about that dream?
\n\u2018I literally had a dream about starting a caf\u00e9. In my dream, it was Honiton, not Axminster. But I spoke to Tim and Sophie about it. And now here we are.\u2019
\nThe five-year lease on the shop began in November last year, with Waffle opening its doors in mid-April. The directors had conversations with other cafes in the town beforehand because they did not want to undercut them or compete.
\n\u2018We put everything we could into it,\u2019 says Matt, who now lives with his young family above the caf\u00e9. \u2018We didn\u2019t have any loans and started as a community project. We did crowdfunding as well as applying for grants. We spoke to Axe Valley School and the police to see what was needed, looking at ways we could serve the community by taking our lead from the community.
\n\u2018Loneliness and isolation is a big thing for us. It\u2019s a massive subject and we realised it exists in various forms in Axminster, in people of all ages. It\u2019s a hugely chimeric thing and it\u2019s hard to put your finger on it. We didn\u2019t know exactly what to do but we didn\u2019t want to do nothing. There is someone here at Waffle who is always available to talk. We have done training sessions with a counsellor on listening, so we\u2019re equipped to fill the gap between unskilled listener and counsellor.\u2019
\nMatt is a member of \u2018The Fold\u2019 Church in Axminster, while Tim belongs to Seaton Baptist Church and Sophie to Crewkerne Community Church. Says Matt: \u2018Our motivation for Waffle has come through our faith. We have a love of people which we really wanted to demonstrate but we wanted to be very deliberate about Waffle not being a Christian \u201cthing\u201d. The important thing about Waffle for us is that it is a place where people can come with all sorts of views and be listened to. There is a lot of healing just from being listened to. The demand is there. It\u2019s a place to chill and be unhurried.\u2019
\nWaffle is open from 2pm until 10pm, Tuesday to Saturday. For more information, visit waffle.org.uk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Margery Hookings is intrigued after receiving a phone call about an innovative project aimed at combating loneliness. She goes to East Devon to find out more. The wonderful sweet smell of waffles is the first thing your senses pick up when you go through the door into one of Axminster\u2019s newest cafes. But this is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[36],"class_list":["post-4272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-history-community","tag-margery-hookings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}