A MUCH-loved café in West Belfast — which gave employment to people with disabilities — has been forced to close after losing vital funding.
Loaf Café on the Grosvenor Road, situated close to the entrance to the Royal Victoria Hospital, was run by the NOW Group.
The award-winning social enterprise based in Dublin and Belfast works with people and businesses to transform lives across the island of Ireland. The not-for-profit helps those who are neurodiverse, autistic or have a learning difficulty by supporting them into jobs with a future.
Opened ten years ago, Loaf Café and Catering has been forced to close after losing over £1m due to cuts to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).
As a result, the NOW Group made the decision to close the Grosvenor Road café but their other cafés at Kilmainham Dublin, the Bobbin café at Belfast City Hall and another café at the Ewart Building in Bedford Street are unaffected.
Speaking exclusively to the Andersonstown News, Maeve Monaghan, CEO of NOW Group said: "This is the first time we're talking about it publicly, because there was so much sensitivity around people with disabilities losing their jobs.
"The loss of the UKSPF funding means that there's over £1m of NOW Group funding gone for next year.
"We had to look at all areas of the organisation to see what we could sustain – that included the Loaf café on the Grosvenor Road which needed that funding to keep it going.
"It's a really difficult trading situation for all catering businesses and without that funding, the Grosvenor Road café would make a loss."
Maeve, who hails from West Belfast, said the charity was hoping for a last-minute cuts reprieve.
"Around ten months ago we knew the funding was uncertain but assumed, as has happened every time before, that there would be some sort of last minute rescue," she said.
However, no funding lifetime appeared.
"We had to look at that site and start to work out what was the best plan," said the NOW chief. "The staff have all been there a long time and some of them have disabilities. We have other cafés but when we looked at that one in particular, we didn't have the footfall there and without the funding, the numbers just don't add up and unfortunately it was the café (which had) to close."
She added: "We bought the building and it means a lot to us. It is very sad. The café is now closed and we have gone through a redundancy process with the staff.
"We've been very fortunate that our employment team within NOW Group have been working with those individuals to place them elsewhere and a number of those individuals have either come back into services with us or we've helped place them in a job elsewhere.
"It has been a really difficult time for them and their families. They were really invested in our organisation and vision. As an organisation that started in that Grosvenor Road community, it is sad to not be able to deliver that service anymore."
Maeve says she's struggling with the decision by the British Government to cut funding to an organisation which helps people with disabilities into paid employment.
"Government initiatives are around inclusive jobs and moving people into work but the funding cut (from London) means that people in West Belfast lose their jobs, people with disabilities lose their jobs," she added.
"The cuts really impact the lives of people. It is short-sighted in my view. We place people with disabilities into paid jobs and that is what the government says they want to do so it doesn't make sense."
The NOW Group pledges to continue to work with its partners in West Belfast in the time ahead.
"I want to thank the local community for their support over the last ten years," says Meave. "We also had many local customers from the Royal Hospital and we're grateful to them also. It is important to thank the community for everything they've done for us in that time and to reassure people that we still will have services going on in Belfast."
