This week Sofia is joined by the Oddfellows who unite people struggling with loneliness through art and crafts. We also take a look into a new community cafe opening in Ashford.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV.
00:19 I'm Sophia Akin and in this show,
00:22 we travel around the county
00:23 to discover Kent's tastiest treats,
00:25 most delicious drinks
00:27 and some of the creative minds across the county.
00:30 In this episode, we'll be looking at some
00:31 of the creative arts and crafts being made
00:34 at Odd Fellows across Kent.
00:35 It's an organisation who support people in making friends.
00:39 There's also a pub in Ashford,
00:40 which is opening a new community cafe
00:42 to support the local community.
00:44 And we'll have a business roundup from across Kent.
00:48 But first, a problem shared is a problem halved.
00:50 But for many across Kent,
00:52 they don't always have that friendship.
00:54 Loneliness can be a dark place,
00:55 especially if widowed or going through divorce.
00:58 The Odd Fellows in Maidstone are encouraging people
01:00 to join their sessions to meet other like-minded people.
01:04 Well, Gabriel Morris went along to one of them
01:06 to find out more about the power of laughter.
01:08 (audience laughing)
01:11 - The power of laughter.
01:13 For many, they don't have this.
01:15 The Odd Fellows group in Maidstone,
01:17 like many others across Kent,
01:19 bring the community together.
01:22 Today, they're making poppy wreaths,
01:24 drinking tea and eating cake.
01:27 But importantly, it's a safe space within the community.
01:31 The Odd Fellows have been running for more than 200 years.
01:35 But in this post-pandemic society,
01:38 for many, they feel more remote.
01:40 This group bonds through art and craft.
01:43 - Yeah, I'm going through a divorce at the moment.
01:47 That's quite difficult.
01:48 And my friends have just been so helpful
01:51 and everyone here has just been so lovely
01:53 when I've had my odd wobbles.
01:55 So, and it's nice just to come and have a cuppa
01:57 and a bit of cake, which solves everything, really.
02:00 It really has meant a lot in terms of support.
02:02 There's other benefits like welfare and care,
02:05 the citizens advice line that we have as well
02:07 has been so beneficial to me.
02:10 So I'm really grateful to have joined.
02:12 - These ladies represent many across Kent,
02:15 going through different transitions in life,
02:17 such as retirement, relocation,
02:20 or perhaps losing a loved one.
02:22 Although they might all have different backgrounds in life,
02:25 they all connect by getting creative
02:27 and using their imagination to come up with new ways
02:30 of making gifts and decorations.
02:33 - Wow.
02:34 Friendship is very, very important this day and age.
02:36 I think after COVID, a lot of people were stuck indoors.
02:41 I think they started to realise what friends meant to them.
02:45 You don't have to craft if you don't want to.
02:46 Nobody's expecting you to do anything.
02:48 The idea of coming here is to meet like-minded people,
02:53 to chew the cud, as they say, over a cup of tea.
02:55 And that's really important.
02:56 I think at the end of the day,
02:58 you know that you've got people there that care for you.
03:01 - And they say they'll always welcome new members.
03:04 Well, I had a go at making a wreath myself.
03:07 - So you're going to have a go
03:08 at making one of these stamens.
03:10 - Okay.
03:11 - We've pre-cut them for you.
03:13 - Nice and easy.
03:14 - Nice and easy.
03:14 And you just got to get it to look like this.
03:18 - You can put mine inside yours if it makes you feel better.
03:20 - There you go.
03:21 I think we'll do that.
03:22 I'm just pop this here and that just goes.
03:24 - It does.
03:25 - Straight down here.
03:26 And there we go.
03:29 - There you are.
03:30 - Perfect.
03:31 (cheering)
03:31 - But maybe I need a little more practise.
03:34 I certainly had a laugh.
03:36 And that's what this is all about.
03:38 Gabriel Morris for Caine TV in Maidstone.
03:41 - Well, joining me now is Julie,
03:43 who we heard from in the piece there.
03:45 Tell me a little bit more about Oddfellows.
03:47 We've got a brilliant display.
03:48 Christmas has come a bit early, hasn't it?
03:50 - Just a little bit.
03:51 - Yeah, we'll get into all this amazing stuff.
03:54 But firstly, tell me a bit more about Oddfellows.
03:56 We were saying before,
03:57 it's quite an interesting name, isn't it?
03:59 So what actually does it mean?
04:01 - Well, Oddfellows is the society
04:02 that we have been running for,
04:05 well, not me particularly,
04:06 but we've been running it for over 200 years.
04:09 With regards to members,
04:13 they can actually get involved in any online activities
04:16 based at the Oddfellows head office.
04:21 And also, they can join a local branch.
04:26 Perhaps, you know, they've never even heard of it before.
04:31 There are quite a few all over the UK,
04:33 particularly around the Kent area.
04:37 And we're trying to encourage more people
04:39 to come along and join us.
04:42 We do lots of crafts.
04:44 We have outings.
04:46 It's very important for people,
04:48 particularly those that are on their own,
04:50 that find that perhaps
04:53 they've lost some friends along the way,
04:56 whether it be through passing
04:57 or whether it be through just, you know,
05:00 you've moved areas
05:01 and you're looking to make new friends.
05:04 And that's quite important.
05:06 So that's why we're here today,
05:09 to showcase what we do or part of what we do.
05:12 I'm afraid you're going to have a lot of glitter
05:14 in your studio. - Yeah, we've got to address
05:16 the elephant in the room.
05:17 Everything, all this spread.
05:19 What's the Christmas theme?
05:21 'Cause you've got, you do arts and crafts, don't you?
05:23 And it's a way of sort of,
05:24 it's good for people's mental health, isn't it?
05:26 - Absolutely.
05:27 - Tell me sort of the Christmas theme.
05:29 It seems a little bit early for Christmas.
05:31 - Well, you have to prepare early.
05:32 - You do, right. - As you grow old.
05:34 And things take time.
05:36 We run clubs every Friday.
05:38 And every other Monday at Marden as well.
05:42 So if we've got any lovely people in the Marden area
05:44 that would be interested to come along,
05:46 we run one every other Monday
05:49 at the Memorial Hall there also.
05:51 Crafting is part of Oddfellows,
05:54 but obviously a lot of people that come there,
05:57 some of them are already crafting at home,
06:01 but they find that crafting at home can become very lonely.
06:05 It's really good to meet up with a community
06:10 that's like-minded.
06:11 And also we can share our crafting.
06:15 There's some of our ladies that are very, very good
06:18 at different types of crafting
06:20 that we're going to incorporate
06:21 into next year's social diary.
06:25 We run a social diary every six months
06:28 and we send it out to all our members
06:30 so they're aware of what we're doing.
06:33 Sometimes we're at the branch,
06:36 other times we might have day trips out.
06:38 And particularly the crafts that we've got here,
06:42 I thought I'd showcase these
06:43 because a lot of these are obviously made
06:46 out of recycled items, which is what we try to do
06:50 because crafting can become very expensive.
06:52 And so we try to make use of things
06:56 that we've already got that you might have around the house.
06:59 Obviously this book art is very effective
07:02 and I do apologise for any book lovers.
07:05 I can promise that these books
07:08 had been well-read and well-loved.
07:09 - Were these all your least favourite books then?
07:11 You had to turn it into something better.
07:14 So it's good that there's a sort of,
07:17 a way that people can tap into
07:21 if they're having a hard time,
07:22 but it's almost one of those things,
07:23 it's a shame that there's a need for it.
07:25 Why are there so many people struggling
07:27 with loneliness, would you say?
07:28 - Well, I think that COVID was one of the big issues
07:32 for lots of people.
07:35 A lot of people got isolated
07:37 and then found it very hard to come out into society again
07:41 and they'd lost their confidence.
07:43 What we try to do at Oddfellows
07:45 is to get their confidence back up.
07:48 Not everybody has to come every week.
07:52 They can come for as many times as they want
07:54 or as little as they want.
07:56 It's entirely up to them.
07:57 Some of them do still have busy lifestyles,
08:00 some of them work,
08:01 and so we don't expect them every week.
08:04 But when they do want to come along
08:06 and they may be feeling a little bit low
08:08 and they just want to have a chat
08:10 and a cup of tea and a nice lunch
08:12 and perhaps do a bit of craft activity,
08:14 or they can just sit and chat with other members.
08:16 We have quite a few gents who come along.
08:19 Not all of them want to craft
08:20 at the same time as us ladies.
08:23 So they're quite happy to just sit at the table
08:25 and have a cup of tea and just pass the time away.
08:29 And I think that's quite important when people leave
08:32 and they know, "I've got somewhere
08:34 perhaps I can go to next week."
08:37 And it gives you that purpose of getting up in the mornings.
08:41 We have a group chat on our WhatsApp,
08:45 which is always great because sometimes
08:47 when you're sitting at home
08:49 and you want to chat to people,
08:51 we're there and most people interact
08:53 throughout the day or the evening.
08:55 - And you mentioned men coming along,
08:57 including our reporter, Gabriel.
08:59 - He did indeed.
09:00 - How good was he at the arts and crafts?
09:02 I'll let you be the judge of that.
09:03 - He wasn't too bad.
09:04 (laughing)
09:05 He wasn't too bad.
09:06 - Room for improvement?
09:07 - Yeah, a little bit of room for improvement.
09:09 At the moment, we're doing the poppies for a poppy wreath
09:14 'cause obviously they do take quite a long time to create.
09:18 - And we've got Remembrance Day approaching as well,
09:20 haven't we? - Exactly.
09:21 And I do try to create crafts
09:25 that are reflective for the months ahead,
09:27 i.e. the Christmas.
09:29 We might do something for Easter,
09:31 Easter cards, Valentines, that type of thing.
09:36 We try to make it as interesting as possible.
09:41 And obviously, if anybody's got any leftover corks,
09:44 particularly over Christmas,
09:46 what great little items these make.
09:48 - Brilliant. - Of course,
09:49 we'll take it away and then they can perhaps
09:52 show somebody else.
09:53 Perhaps they've got grandchildren
09:54 that they can share it with
09:56 or friends that are interested in making some
10:00 but don't really want to come along to the club.
10:02 - And there'd be some people who struggle
10:05 with, say, mental health problems
10:06 who'd be sceptical of trying things like this.
10:09 So why would you recommend it?
10:12 Why is it actually good for your mental health?
10:14 What is it about, I guess, being creative?
10:17 What is it about that that can actually be
10:19 a form of therapy, you could say?
10:22 - I think it is a form of therapy.
10:24 It stimulates.
10:26 I think that it gives people self-satisfaction.
10:30 They feel like that they've achieved something.
10:32 Perhaps being at home a lot of the time,
10:34 they might be very good at craft
10:36 but they haven't got anybody to show their own craft
10:38 and they might want to come along.
10:40 And we're always after people that have got an interest
10:43 in other types of craft
10:45 because then we can start being taught
10:48 the things that they like doing.
10:50 And there's always plenty of room for people to come along.
10:55 If they feel a bit nervous about coming in,
10:57 there's nothing worse than walking into a room
10:59 full of people.
11:01 I always have a chat with them first.
11:03 It might be a good idea for people to come along.
11:08 Next week on the 29th,
11:09 we have our Macmillan Coffee Morning.
11:12 So we'll be able to obviously make them welcome.
11:15 They can bring friends along
11:16 and also it's gonna obviously make a lot of money
11:19 for charity.
11:21 - And it's always the anticipation,
11:23 always a bit scary, isn't it?
11:24 But then once you're there,
11:25 you find that it was easier than you thought
11:28 and there'll be other new people coming along as well.
11:31 Well, thank you so much for coming in.
11:33 We've run out of time,
11:34 but be great to see sort of more of these arts and crafts
11:37 and you're prepared for Christmas already.
11:39 - Yes, we're prepared for Christmas.
11:40 - Perfect.
11:41 Thank you so much, Julie. - Thank you.
11:43 - Well, we're going to take a quick break now,
11:45 but coming up, we're going to find out more
11:47 about a community cafe,
11:48 which is opening at a pub in Ashford
11:50 and we'll also have the Business Roundup
11:52 from across the county.
11:53 See you very soon.
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15:02 - Hello and welcome back to Made in Kent live on KMTV.
15:09 Now a new cafe is opening in a village near Ashford.
15:11 It will be housed in the local community pub.
15:14 The George Cafe aims to bring local people together
15:16 and create new ways for people to support the local economy.
15:20 It's been helped by the non-for-profit organisation,
15:22 The Pub is the Hub.
15:24 Well, The George in Bethesda,
15:25 like many pubs across the UK, was shut for many years.
15:28 But earlier this year, it reopened.
15:30 Let's take a look back at that moment now.
15:32 Bethesda, a small village near Ashford,
15:35 at the heart of the community, a 17th century pub.
15:39 For three years, locals have been without it.
15:42 Today, it's back with the Ashford MP
15:45 putting the first pint.
15:48 - I am thrilled to declare The George formally open.
15:52 (crowd cheering)
15:55 - Last year, locals came together buying shares.
15:58 It's now open as a community pub.
16:01 - It was from the 20th of November to the 17th of December.
16:05 And in that three-week period,
16:07 the village, bless them, raised £330,000.
16:11 It was absolutely amazing.
16:13 And that actually then gave us the wherewithal to buy the pub.
16:17 - The funding locals raised was then matched
16:19 by the government's community ownership scheme.
16:22 - It was money given on the basis that you'd only get it
16:26 if you could raise at least as much again.
16:28 They've done more than that.
16:30 And also that there was a realistic chance
16:32 of reopening the pub.
16:33 So you had to jump some hurdles.
16:35 It's an act of faith to give a quarter of a million pounds
16:37 worth of taxpayers' money to a potential village pub.
16:41 - Now, the pub might have got the keys some five months ago
16:44 to unlock these doors,
16:46 but it's been through a complete rewiring phase
16:49 and it's been totally redecorated.
16:51 And it also had to deal with some mould up in Verruth.
16:54 But it looks like it's been worth the wait.
16:58 But businesses are currently battling high costs.
17:01 - Hospitality is definitely a difficult trade at the moment.
17:04 But we've priced our prices very competitively
17:07 and we've got huge momentum in this village.
17:10 We've been shut for two and a half years.
17:12 People have missed that.
17:13 And the momentum we've got and the support we've got
17:15 from the village is very encouraging.
17:17 - According to the Plunkett Foundation,
17:19 there are nearly 200 community pubs in the UK.
17:23 And they say they are generally more successful
17:25 at staying open compared to privately owned pubs.
17:29 - Well, I think this community has demonstrated
17:31 that a pub is the centre, the heart of a community.
17:34 And I think they've done a sterling job
17:36 in terms of being able to sort of gird their loins together,
17:39 absolutely raise the funding, get the pub,
17:42 which is right at the centre of the village.
17:44 - It means a lot to me personally,
17:45 but it means a lot to our village as well.
17:48 I've known this pub since I was 13 years old
17:50 when I first came to work here.
17:52 My first job was working in this pub.
17:54 So it's been very sad without it.
17:56 And I just feel super excited that we are opening our doors today.
18:00 - Although the George is now open,
18:02 it's currently a wet pub.
18:04 That means it's drinks only,
18:06 as the kitchen still needs some additional work.
18:09 They hope that will be opened later this year.
18:12 Gabriel Morris for KMTV in Bethesda.
18:15 - Well, earlier on, I caught up with Michelle and Alex
18:18 from the George to discuss this further.
18:20 And I started off by asking them a bit more
18:22 about their new cafe and what it's like.
18:25 - Okay, we opened the cafe about a month
18:27 after opening the pub, first of all.
18:29 The idea was to try and have it for a wider audience,
18:33 to bring a wider audience into the pub,
18:35 more of the community.
18:37 So people can come in earlier in the day,
18:39 10 o'clock to four, our cafe hours.
18:42 And it's been extremely popular.
18:44 We've organised homemade cakes and bakery items
18:49 from a local bakery that we source.
18:51 And so it's proving very popular with our customers.
18:54 - And the pub will also be supporting
18:58 local suppliers as well, won't it?
19:00 So tell me a bit about that.
19:02 - Yes, we have a bakery, a local bakery
19:07 that we're buying goods from.
19:10 And we're using a local coffee supplier, Bloss Coffee,
19:14 that roasts their own coffee in Kings North,
19:17 which is very close by.
19:18 And then we get our teas from a company
19:20 called Kent and Sussex Tea Company,
19:22 which is based in Pluckley.
19:24 So we have their own brand of Pluckley tea
19:26 and that lovely Kenya tea and other herbal teas.
19:31 So we're helping to support local businesses
19:33 through the cafe as well.
19:35 - And Alex, the reopening of the pub
19:38 has been a bit of a dream of yours for a while, hasn't it?
19:40 We've been covering this here on KMTV since the start.
19:43 So how's that first few months been going
19:45 now that the pub is back open?
19:48 - Yeah, it's been brilliant, actually.
19:51 We opened at the end of May.
19:53 No surprise, we had a very, very busy opening weekend.
19:56 And actually it's been pretty busy ever since.
19:59 Our team have worked incredibly hard over the summer.
20:02 We've had some wonderful days out on the patio.
20:05 Today's not really one of them, unfortunately,
20:07 but we've had a brilliant time.
20:09 And I think, you know, being a West only pub,
20:11 we obviously have to make the most of the summer.
20:13 But now, you know, we've still got a number of things
20:15 that we need to go and do now to build out the business
20:18 and really make it sustainable for the long term.
20:21 - And you had Damien Green come along to the opening,
20:23 the local MP in Ashford come along.
20:25 That must have been pretty great to have
20:28 the support of a local MP.
20:29 Was he any good at pouring a pint, though?
20:31 - He was pretty good, actually.
20:34 Didn't see any spillages.
20:36 But yeah, it's a great point, actually.
20:38 Damien's been a fantastic supporter of ours
20:41 for over two years, even in the days where, you know,
20:44 we weren't able to make a lot of progress
20:45 and we were finding some challenges
20:47 in getting all the funds together for the pub.
20:50 He stuck by us.
20:51 He actually met us several times last year.
20:53 And then, of course, when we weren't able
20:55 to make things happen,
20:56 he was part of the whole opening process.
20:59 - And could you tell me a bit more about Pub in the Hub?
21:02 Tell us a bit more about what that is
21:03 and kind of the involvement
21:04 with everything that's going on.
21:06 - It's a body that gives grants to pubs to help them,
21:13 well, be the hub of the community.
21:15 So that was very apt in our case
21:16 'cause that was one of our aims,
21:19 was to, the George has always been the main hub
21:23 of the Bethesda village.
21:25 And in wanting to keep our pub
21:28 and buy it as a community pub,
21:30 that was a key objective to bring it back
21:32 as the hub of our community.
21:34 So we found this organisation that actually calls itself
21:37 Pub is the Hub and has, obviously,
21:40 the same aim as we saw for ourselves.
21:43 And we were very fortunate that they gave us a grant
21:46 to help us set up the cafe,
21:49 so help us purchase some of the equipment that we needed.
21:52 And they've been extremely supportive in giving us advice.
21:56 And they came, again, to the opening of the pub
21:59 and the opening of the cafe.
22:01 So we're very pleased to have found that organisation
22:05 and for everything they do for the community.
22:09 - Now, pubs are quite a key staple
22:12 in British culture, aren't they?
22:13 But we had some data come out yesterday that shows
22:17 pubs are vanishing at a rate of two every day.
22:19 Is this something that is concerning to you?
22:21 - Yeah, it's a really good point.
22:24 I read that article as well.
22:26 And obviously, it's been something on our mind
22:27 over the last few years,
22:28 we've been trying to save our village pub.
22:31 We've obviously been taking as many steps as we can
22:34 in order to try and make our business
22:35 as sustainable as possible.
22:37 One of the things we've been doing is keeping
22:39 a really, really close eye on all of our costs,
22:41 as a good example, over the summer.
22:42 I think it's very, very easy for us to get carried away
22:44 and spend loads of money on lots of things.
22:46 Actually, we've managed to keep ourselves really focused.
22:49 Our general manager has been absolutely fantastic
22:51 in the way that she's managed the business,
22:53 keeping the wastage down as well.
22:56 But the key thing for us is going to be how we grow
22:58 our offering now, particularly in terms of food
23:01 as well as we go into the winter.
23:02 - Are community pubs the way forward then, would you say?
23:07 - I mean, I think certainly for us, without a doubt.
23:10 I think it obviously depends on the community,
23:13 on the area and the pub itself.
23:15 Our pub is absolutely in the heart of the village
23:18 here in Beddarsden.
23:19 We've got the post office and the butchers
23:21 very, very close by, as well as the hairdressers.
23:24 The pub itself has access to a car park as well.
23:26 So it really, really is in the centre of the community.
23:29 We've always believed it's a viable business,
23:32 but actually it's a fantastic model for the community
23:34 to be able to come forward and to be able to effectively
23:37 own that village asset, which is what we've been able to do.
23:40 And we're delighted.
23:42 - Great. Well, thank you both very much for joining us tonight.
23:44 Great to catch up with you.
23:46 We were just there a few months ago.
23:47 So great to see how it's progressing.
23:49 Thank you.
23:50 And finally, from RAF investment in Rochester
23:53 to parking charges coming into a shopping centre in Medway,
23:57 many businesses in Kent are building up their budgets
23:59 and perfecting their profits.
24:01 Here's your Business Roundup for this week.
24:04 (upbeat music)
24:07 - The RAF have awarded one of Kent's biggest employers
24:12 a £40 million contract, creating 80 new jobs.
24:17 BAE Systems have been granted the funds
24:21 to develop its Striker II helmet for the RAF.
24:24 It'll be used for all digital night vision systems
24:27 and display data directly onto the pilot's helmet visor,
24:31 providing mission-critical information
24:33 right before their eyes.
24:35 The Minister for Defence said this investment
24:37 will support the development
24:38 of the state-of-the-art equipment,
24:40 while also backing hundreds of highly skilled jobs.
24:44 And moving on, and shoppers at Chatham Dockside
24:47 fear for the introduction of parking charges
24:49 will kill off the centre.
24:51 A poll carried out by Kent Online
24:53 showed that 85% of readers intend to stop using the complex
24:58 once the charges are introduced later this month.
25:01 Earlier it was confirmed that from the 25th of September,
25:04 shoppers will only be able to stay at the complex
25:06 for one hour for free.
25:08 The car park said that the decision had been made
25:10 after more than 200 cars were left overnight
25:13 by people not using the shops.
25:15 Next, it's been 18 months since JC Rook & Sons
25:19 have gone into administration.
25:21 They've been given a new lease of life.
25:23 The butchery firm was once the county's oldest and biggest,
25:26 employing 130 people across 11 branches
25:30 for more than 55 years.
25:32 However, since shutting down last year,
25:34 the gaps left by the shops on the high street
25:36 have now been filled.
25:37 The site of the first ever JC Rook & Sons shop in Dover
25:41 has been transformed into a convenience store,
25:43 while in Folkestone and Hythe,
25:45 new butchers have opened their doors
25:47 in place of the former unit.
25:49 And finally, Canterbury's annual food festival
25:51 is set to take place this weekend.
25:53 Canterbury's cooking festival will return
25:55 to the Dane John Gardens
25:57 for three days of local food and drink.
26:00 Organised by Produced in Kent and Soom events,
26:03 the festival is set to be even bigger this year
26:05 with activities such as comedy nights,
26:07 cooking demonstrations and children's fancy dress.
26:10 And that's your Business Roundup for this week.
26:12 Well, that's all from us here at KMTV.
26:20 You've been watching Made in Kent.
26:21 In the meantime, you can check out some of our other programmes.
26:23 We've got Kent Tonight,
26:25 the Kent Politics Show and Kent on Climate.
26:27 Those are on our website, kmtv.co.uk.
26:30 And if you own an independent business in Kent
26:32 and you'd like to be a guest on our show,
26:34 you can email us on madeinkent@kmtv.co.uk.
26:38 I'll see you at the same time next week
26:40 and I'll see you at eight o'clock for our evening news bulletin.
26:42 Good night.
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