The owner of a West Belfast cafe has launched a clothing appeal and Christmas market to help fund a free breakfast club for kids.
Grainne Carson opened Patisserie G on Beechmount Avenue in August 2021, achieving her dream while establishing the cafe as a community hub.
Over the past year, Grainne has operated daily breakfast clubs, a book club, and a weekly young entrepreneur club for local kids.
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The inspiration for starting a breakfast club was Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign during lockdown, and a bit to make sure children were well-fed before school each day.
When it first started last September, a handful of children were attending the breakfast club each day. Now, however, Grainne said over 20 children are stopping by, a sign of the times with the cost of living crisis, but also a testament to the friendships that have been formed at the cafe.
To help make sure children can continue having a free breakfast, Grainne has launched a clothing appeal and Christmas market to help raise funds to keep it going.
For the clothing appeal, people are being asked to bring in a bag of clothes they no longer need. If the bag sells for £5, you get the £5 back, which can either be kept or donated to the breakfast club. Grainne is hoping that selling a big bag of clothes for £5 will help struggling families in the run up to Christmas.
A series of Christmas markets are set to take place at Patisserie G, with the first adult market taking place on Wednesday, November 23 from 9.30 am to 12pm. Any vendors hoping to sell at this market are charged £3 per table, with money from this going into the breakfast club.
This market is followed by a kids market from 11am to 3pm on Saturday, November 26, led by children from Patisserie G's young entrepreneur club.
"We started off last September with maybe three or four kids coming in, but now we're up to over 20 coming in a day. It's growing so fast," Grainne told Belfast Live.
"For our clothing appeal, you can bring a bag of clothes in, if it sells you get your £5 back, or you can donate that £5 to the breakfast club.
"The Christmas market starts on Wednesday, that's an adult one, from 9.30 am until 12. Our young entrepreneurs are doing a kids market on Saturday, and they'll be in every Saturday until Christmas.
"The young entrepreneurs are making snow globes and other things for the market. Hopefully we'll get a good wee turnout for them, they're loving being involved in the young entrepreneurs club."
Grainne said she's loved seeing the children from the young entrepreneurs club learning life-skills and coming up with their own business ideas.
She said: "We're trying to teach the kids how to do savings accounts. That's the next thing we'll be doing. It's all about getting life skills.
"We were sitting this morning with a few kids from the breakfast club and they were showing me their ideas, then they usually come back in after school and update you with the wee things they're working on. It's so good to see how they're getting on."
When it comes to the breakfast club, Grainne said it's grown much bigger than she initially thought it would.
"We've had kids coming in saying there's no place like this, where they can come in and relax, and have a free breakfast before school. Kids have told us they wouldn't have normally had breakfast, they would have just waited for lunch in school," Grainne explained.
"I didn't realise it was going to get as big as it has when I first started it last September. In the morning it's just packed in here.
"More people aren't as embarrassed to come in now, kids will come in and have some food then go to school together. They go out of the door a bit happier and more upbeat."
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