Reopened community coffee and refill shop thriving

Sandra Dee (left) and Sharon Creese, enjoy the Roots Knit and Natter club

A community cafe and refill shop has become "a destination where people bring their friends", after being forced to close earlier this year.

Roots Coffee & Community, based in the Kingsholm area of Gloucester, shut its coffee shop in February before a community rescue mission helped it to reopen and also save the refill shop.

Manager, Rosie Hart, said the team were "overwhelmed and overjoyed" by the community's response.

Sharon Creese, a member of a knitting club hosted by Roots, said spaces like the Alvin Street venue were "really important".

Why did Roots close?

Roots announced in January that it would be closing after an "unprecedented year of challenges".

Issues within the hospitality industry, rising costs, and illnesses within its senior team were "enormous" challenges during 2023, development manager Daniel Smith told the BBC at the time.

The coffee shop shut on 10 February, but it was announced later that month the refill shop behind would remain open after money was raised by the community.

The refill shop then moved inside the cafe and Roots reopened as a whole in May.

Rosie Hart said Roots aims to make plastic reduction accessible for everyone

Community support

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Hart said members of the community volunteered to help Roots with "simple things" during its difficult period.

"When Roots was in a bit of trouble, we reached out to our community and we said, ‘look, this is where we’re at. What do you want to do about it?’.

"Everybody in the community was like 'no, no, Roots stays open'," she said.

"We were absolutely overwhelmed and overjoyed by the response, we’ve been very lucky to have crowdfunding and also a lot of volunteers who have come in and helped with simple things, from helping us get through the washing up and donating quite a lot of money."

The cafe and refill shop are now combined in one building

Since combining the refill shop and cafe in one building, Ms Hart said Roots has "more of a presence" on Alvin Street.

The refill shop sells everything from sweets to textured vegetable protein from dispensers lining the walls, but knowing where to start can be hard for those who want to reduce their plastic use.

"When you go to a refill shop it might be a bit daunting... we get customers who have been coming to us since day one and they will still dispense and over-dispense and it goes all over the floor and that’s fine," Rosie said.

"We just laugh about it and sweep it up.

"We want people to know it is a safe space and if you don’t want to spend that much, that's fine. There's no right or wrong in here; we will help you."

'Makes us smile'

Since reopening, Ms Hart said Roots has seen its customer base increase.

"One of of my favourite things is we've become a destination," she said.

"The number of times I see a regular customer come in, and they go, 'I've just brought my friend who's visiting to come and see you'.

"That just makes us smile and makes us really feel like we’re doing a good job."

The coffee shop is a popular place for friends and neighbours to meet

Roots is used as a community space for groups to meet, with one of those groups being Roots Knit and Natter.

Group member Ms Creese said: "It’s just really nice to have a social place you can go to where you can engage in your hobby but also meet lots of new people and make lots of friends.

"To have a space like Roots to be able to do that is really important."