The team of Managers who currently run the Nourish Café, Peter Beaton and John Fussell, have been engaged by the Centre for Cerebral Palsy to assist them with the establishment of their own café ‘The Pickled Pumpkin”. Peter and John have been engaged to assist TCCP Management with the employment of suitable staff, the establishment of a regular menu, the setting of food handling and hygiene guidelines, supplier negotiations and operating processes for the Café.

Peter Beaton commented “ We are delighted to assist our colleagues in the Disability Sector with the establishment of their own Café and to impart some of the knowledge and experience we have gained from our own experiences in Nourish”

The Pickled Pumpkin sits inside the TCCP Admin building in Menora and provides coffee, snacks and healthy food options to staff and visitors to the Centre

The Nourish café, at Wanneroo Aquamotion, has just commenced providing cooked lunches to the Aged Care Centre in Wanneroo. Previously, meals were cooked by City of Wanneroo staff in a very small kitchen with limited ability to prepare cooked meals. Those meals are now being prepared in the kitchen at Nourish and delivered each Monday, Wednesday and Friday to the Centre, saving staff the task of preparing meals and allowing them to focus on providing activities and care to the aged visitors. The City of Wanneroo has 6 Aged Care Centres within the Shire and the team at Nourish hope to expand to provide meals to the rest, once they have proven the concept with the initial centre.

In a new departure for its Business direction, Intework opened its “NOURISH CAFÉ” on 21st September this year. Nourish sits inside the newly refurbished Wanneroo Aquamotion Leisure Centre, north of Perth. The City of Wanneroo spent $15 million on refurbishing the centre and included a new, state of the art, café inside it. They called for tenders to run the café earlier in the year, which Intework provided and was successful in its bid. The intention of the Café is, not only to provide revenue to Intework, but also to provide training and employment to our clients. The café opened with a staff that included 5 of our Open Employment clients who have quickly picked up the skills required to work in the Café and are now an integral part of the operation.

Intework’s Business Development Manager, Peter Beaton stated “ The café is running well and our expectations for the summer season are that it will be very busy in the new centre”. News of our Café has spread already and we have received calls from other Shires and councils who have seen, and liked, what we are doing. Several of them have asked us to potentially work with them on a similar operation. The benefits are obvious and the operation meets the Council’s social inclusion policies, Intework’s stated outcomes and the clients gain a lot of experience from the work that will eventually allow them to move on to greater things in other Cafes and Restaurants”

It is hoped that this business model can be extended to other cafes within Perth as our experience and knowledge grows with our first Café.

For more information on Nourish, call Peter Beaton on 0413-444577 or e-mail to:  peterb@intework.org