Many of you will remember that back in May 2023 Sustainable Henfield 2030 launched the monthly Henfield Repair Café with the aim of repairing everyday items that might otherwise go into landfill. It takes place on the third Saturday of every month from 10am to 12pm at the Henfield Haven.
Well just a few months later and we want to share our delight at how well the Repair Café is going! In seven months we have received a massive 233 items for repair and managed to successfully mend 72% of these. We have given advice on another 13% of these items. We would like to thank our fantastic volunteer repairers who have mended an amazing selection of items including: radios, vacuum cleaners, tools, bags, china ornaments, bikes, clothes, jewellery and laptops. One of our repairers even mended a weather vane – what a talented bunch they all are!
Although we ask for a small donation, the service is completely voluntary. If anybody feels ‘cash strapped’, please don’t let this stop you coming along; we want to help everyone in the local community irrespective of their financial circumstances. Once we have paid the (not inconsiderable) start-up costs of the Repair Café, any profits made will go to Sustainable Henfield and local carbon-reducing projects.
In addition to the Repair Café, our sharpening service has also proved very popular with over 350 items such as knives, scissors, secateurs and shears sharpened in seven months. The sharpening team do a fantastic job over the two hours they are open and charge only £1 per item. We’ve also run a couple of workshops alongside the Repair Café: Melo Velo came along to teach people basic bike maintenance and Liquidamber ran a session on using chain saws – both sessions were very well received.
The Repair Cafe really is a team effort and it could not work without all the other volunteers who carry out equally important jobs such as admin work, PAT testing and welcoming customers. We always have colleagues from Sustainable Henfield on hand to help with any queries on energy saving, biodiversity and recycling. And most importantly we also have tea, coffee and homemade cakes available which are very popular – it’s lovely to see the cafe area buzzing with conversation while people wait for their repairs to be completed. In fact it has a lovely community atmosphere about it, and we’ve had some great feedback from our customers:
“Thank you for repairing the cat ornament for me. I am really pleased with the results, as the ornament is precious and was gifted to me from my Mother.”
“Thank you so much for taking up my Dads trousers - saves buying him a new pair! What a great resources you are for the village, keep up the good work, thanks again.”
“The ‘tigers eye’ necklace that Viv repaired was given to me by someone special. I am so grateful to her for doing such a wonderful job with the clasp so that I can wear it again.”
So if you have something in your cupboard that could perhaps be given a new lease of life rather than be put in the bin, do come along and see us – we would love to see you.
And because we’re getting busier each month, we’re always looking for more volunteer repairers. If you would like to join us, why not pop in and see us? You would be welcomed with open arms!
You can contact the Henfield Repair Café at repairs@sustainablehenfield2030.org or on 01273 494113.
Melanie Hempleman
