A SHOTTON café supported by the HFT charity has today celebrated its grand reopening.

Formerly known as Rowley’s Pantry at Deeside Enterprise Centre, the café has in the last week undergone a complete face lift following closure thanks to the  work of James Hunt of CAF Gas and a team of volunteers.

Cafe Dai was unveiled to a large crowd with Welsh middleweight boxing champion, Gerome ‘The Breadmaker’ Warburton officially opening the venue.

Mr Hunt, 42, runs a successful plumbing and heating social enterprise business who gives their profits back to the community and has used the newly named Cafe Dai as his first project in his ‘community SOS’ scheme.

James said: “I’ve got my own office here and I saw the amazing work that they do (HFT at Rowley’s Pantry). I saw the state of it, it wasn’t in a great condition, so I thought, I love what they’re doing and I could help them.

"It seemed like a very natural thing to do.”

“Helping people helps me. It helps my mental health and keeps me on the straight and narrow – I don’t know what I’d do without community.”

“I try to help someone every day. But when you can visually see how much it means. When you help someone, it makes you feel good.

“I’m trying to create an organisation that gives people in the community the opportunity to come together and help others.”

The renovation lasted only a week which was sentiment to how much hard work went into the project which involved between 30 and 40 volunteers.

Hft is a national charity that creatively supports more than 2,200 adults with learning disabilities across England and Wales to live the best life possible. Hft also helps people with learning disabilities take part in daily activities, make friends, and develop relationships and to find work.

The café benefits adults with learning difficulties and enables them to develop key skills such as communication and teamwork whilst giving them meaningfulness to their lives.

The opening coincides with the beginning of loneliness awareness week which comes as recent research by HFT found that more than a third (36%) of people with a learning disability surveyed after lockdown said they felt lonely nearly always or all the time, while one in three people (37%) also said that they hardly ever or never go out to socialise – suggesting that their experiences of loneliness were not simply a consequence of restrictions introduced due to the pandemic.

Valerie Healy from HFT Flintshire said: “Our job is to showcase what people can achieve, our slogan is to support people to live their best life possible and this is one of the ways we can do that.

“One of the barriers we found that was very difficult for people with learning disabilities is not having a job. So the type of employment skills people will learn here (at the café) is a pathway into employment, which can then result in them into being more integrated within the community, reduce anxiety and give them a sense of achievement.”

Lauren, who works at the Café revealed how much she was looking forward to getting back to work: “I can’t wait to go back to work on Thursday and get back to normal.

"This place makes me feel happy.”