I’m really pleased to tell you all that we’ve absolutely smashed our Crowdfunding campaign for the Hive Café. We raised £20,312, and we did it with just hours to go before the deadline.

Everyone here at the University and in the Students’ Union is really pleased, so we’d like to say a big thank you to all those living locally who supported us.

If the £20,000 figure had not been reached, every other promised donation would have been lost, so it really is a case of all or nothing!

The Hive Café is run by Growhampton, part of Roehampton Students’ Union. The café was built out of shipping containers, and the £20,000 will buy an extra container and pay for its installation, fitting out, decorating and an upgrade to the kitchen area. Once complete the seating space will be tripled.

I’d like to hand over briefly to Siobhan Kelly our students’ union present, who also wants to say thanks on behalf of the whole union.

Siobhan says: “We’re so pleased the Hive has beaten its Crowdfunder target, so massive thanks to all of our backers who donated. We’ve had local mums and dads who stop in every day after taking their children to school saying what a great place it is, as well as hundreds of people at the University.

“The Hive Café is now going to be bigger and better, but I can promise the relaxed look and feel, and the great food and drinks will not change, that’s what visitors love, and the whole Growhampton team are really pleased to be able to share it with more people.”

The expansion work is due to take place this summer and, by September, the café will re-open at more than twice the size, with a new outdoor seating area and ambience. It will continue to serve organic and fair trade food and coffee, some of which is made from produce grown on the campus.

We’re all really chuffed, and that’s down to our students, staff and local people all getting together to help what we certainly believe is a great project, so thanks again.

In my next post I’ll be able to tell you when the expansion work is likely to happen and to give some ideas about how the new Hive Café will look.

Joel

Joel Williams is the Grower for the University of Roehampton’s Students’ Union Growhampton project