A POPULAR community cafe in East Oxford is reopening today.

The Garden Cafe in Manzil Way, off Cowley Road, will be back serving freshly-prepared food and drinks for takeaway from 11am.

Run by charity Restore, the cafe aims to offer a friendly, welcoming place to relax within its gardens as well as invaluable training for those who use its services.

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Customers will also be able to sit in the garden to eat their takeaways from today.

There will be homemade lunches from locally sourced food, and Fairtrade barista coffees between 11am and 2.30pm.

The cafe provides people with mental health problems the opportunity to learn catering and customer service skills, as well as getting work experience.

Christine McDermott, cafe manager, said the charity was excited to welcome people back.

Oxford Mail:

She said: "This is significant for our members who have transitioned from lockdown, dealing with their mental health issues, into a new setting, to operate a take away cafe.

"We are impressed and encouraged by their resilience and tenacity in facing these new challenges."

One man who previously worked at the cafe said: “I was still struggling to cope with my depression and life situation.

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"One thing which I found particularly difficult in those first few months was being stuck at home with nothing to do."

He added: "Working at the cafe was a great environment for me to be in whilst I was getting better, as it gave me something productive to do that wasn’t too stressful and where there wasn’t a huge amount of pressure and where I got to be around people who were very friendly and supportive.

"I’d like to thank you and the rest of the team for making this possible, as the experience certainly contributed to my recovery.”

Oxford Mail:

Since the coronavirus outbreak, Restore has been impacted significantly. In accordance with government guidelines, its face-to-face services have been suspended and the charity moved to supporting people remotely.

The increase of IT costs, and the cancellation of all of its fundraising events during the busiest time of the year, has meant 'unprecedented' financial losses to the charity.

A major event for the charity would have been the 30th Elder Stubbs Festival.

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The quirky community celebration is organised jointly by Restore and the Elder Stubbs Charity Allotments each year, with the majority of funds raised at the event going to the charity.

Restore, founded in 1977, is focused on helping people in Oxfordshire with mental health problems take control of their recovery.

It offers recovery groups, training and employment coaching to make this possible.

The charity helps around 900 people each year across its six sites in Oxfordshire.

As well as the Garden Cafe in Manzil Way the charity also runs Littlemore Lounge, a shop and cafe in the grounds of Littlemore Mental Health Hospital.