Stoke Newington pay-what-you-can café admits that it is “a little scary to see how busy” it has become. The Second Chance Café, where volunteer’s cook with unwanted produce and customers are asked to only pay what they can afford, has seen a 50% spike in meals served since June.
Max Mucenic, manager of The Second Chance Café, said: “We’ve had more and more people needing our services, coming in saying, ‘I need to pay my bills so I can’t contribute this week or this month’.”
The cafe served 130 meals a week on average this October, despite only opening for a few hours on Thursdays and Fridays.
Mr Mucenic said: “People have left notes saying ‘My electric isn’t working or my gas is turned off and so this is my only chance to have a hot meal for the week’.”
Sylvester Murphy is one of the attendees who rely on the café. Mr Murphy said: “This place is a sanctuary. I’m up to my eyeballs in debt, I have no food and no money.”
It is not just the café’s attendees who are struggling; Mr Mucenic said: “Some of our volunteers have had to go back to work after they had retired.”
While the café is currently being run from St Mary’s Centre in Stoke Newington rent free, increasing energy prices might change that.
Mr Mucenic said: “The manager of this community centre said that they’ve had to raise their prices when they rent out the space, just to cover utilities. It’s possible that at some point we’ll have to start contributing to this space.”
He added: “I always am torn when are when I see our guest numbers growing because on the one hand, it feels good that we’re popular. On the other, that’s not necessarily a good thing because more people need the services.”
