One year of supporting the community and Waffle Seaton café

Waffle Seaton and Re:Store celebrated one year at their cafe based at Seaton Community Hospital last week.

The café and community hub – a sister outlet of the hugely popular Community Waffle House in neighbouring Axminster – opened last June after permission was granted by NHS property services to re-purpose the former kitchen at the hospital.

The venue's first anniversary was celebrated last week, with a many of the hospital staff enjoying lunch and cakes at the cafe during their break.

Similar to the concept at the Axminster Waffle House, Waffle Seaton opened with the aim of combatting loneliness and encouraging community cohesion.

While the Waffle team serve up a delicious menu of sweet and savoury waffles, soup, jacket potatoes, cakes, hot and cold drinks, community interest company Re:store oversees the community work at the cafe, using the venue as a base from which to run their outreach work, including partnering with several other local organisations.

A year in, they say the partnership is working very well and they are keen to further reach out to local people as they move forward.

One Monday and Tuesday, the cafe is used as a meeting place for a variety of local groups and organisations, with a private meeting room available, and it is open to the general public Wednesday to Saturday. The cafe is also well used by NHS staff working at the hospital site.

Those interested in booking the space should email [email protected] or take a look at the Waffle Seaton Facebook page to find out more about local groups meeting there.