Funding boost for Folkestone Repair Café

A new grant will help fix household items, reducing waste and saving local families money. 

Energy-from-waste operator enfinium has awarded £1,300 from its Repair Café  Support Fund to to Folkestone Repair Cafe.

Established in 2002 by the Sunflower House charitable trust, Folkestone Repair Café is part of the International Repair Café network. To date, volunteers at monthly repair events have mended 250 items at 24 meet-ups. Hoovers and garden trimmers are among the most common items, in addition to electronics such as stereos and radios.

Operating costs will now be covered by the grant, in addition to the purchase of new equipment and spare parts to expand the services on offer, and build capacity. In doing so, potential waste will be prevented from reaching landfill.

In total, enfinium has pledged £60,000 to help repair cafés within a 30mile radius of the firm’s facilities in Kent, North Wales, West Yorkshire, and the West Midlands. You can find out more about grants of up to £1,500 per year, here.

‘We are delighted to have been selected as one of the first recipients of enfinium’s Repair Café Support Fund,’ said Jon O’Connor, Chair of Trustees at Folkestone Repair Café.  This new funding will empower us to broaden our impact in working with Folkestone’s community to help reduce their climate footprint through repair and reuse while saving money and fostering a passion for repair.

‘We are so proud of all the work we do in the community – this project is about much more than just repairing broken items,’ he continued. ‘For example, recently, we repaired an old Walkman for a local resident which meant she was able to hear her mums voice for the first time in 20 years since she had passed. This is all about people coming together to do something positive.’

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