If you’re hungry but don’t know what you’re craving, chances are South Norwood’s Portland Road has what you’re looking for. The eclectic road connecting Norwood Junction to the west and the countryside to the east is full of lively independent eateries and shops catering for all needs.
However, one of the area’s most unique dining experiences is located slightly off the main street, through an unassuming corridor at number 44b. Follow the sandwich board down the hall and you’re immediately met by the sound of infectious laughter and the kind of warm greeting you’d expect from an old friend.
This is the South Norwood Community Kitchen (SNCK), a pay-what-you-can cafe run by volunteers for the people of South Norwood. From Monday to Saturday, it offers lunch and food bank services.
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The project began in 2016 before moving into its current location at the Croydon Council-owned Socco Cheta Community Hub in the summer of 2022. Since then, SNCK has really made the space its own with art on the walls, music playing through speakers and the constant hum of chatter between the volunteers and the regulars.
Emma Gardiner is project manager for SNCK. During a lunchtime visit to the cafe this week, she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) how the kitchen’s emphasis has always been on using the community as a way to combat social issues in the area.
According to Emma, that community starts with having a strict open-door policy at the café. She said: “We make it as easy as possible to get here because that’s how communities work, I mean you don’t have to fill in a form to shop with your neighbour.
“We strongly believe that everyone has to participate to make it work, we’re not here to serve customers, we’re here to look after each other.
“A lot of people came to be part of the community but ended up volunteering. The reason it’s such a diverse group – because we don’t have a lot of processes to get involved. You don’t have to fill out a form or go to interview, we only do DBS checks.
“What’s radical about these spaces is that we’re pushing against people’s perceptions of homeless people and migrants. You come here and there could be a young couple, who’ve probably bought a property in the area, sitting next to a guy who’s homeless. . “
Looking around the cafe, it’s clear that their policy is in full effect. People of all ages and backgrounds sit next to each other discussing the day’s events or simply enjoying the hot drinks and food provided by the volunteers.
While quality and food and drink remain at the core of SNCK’s work, they are keen to emphasize their role as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to community campaigns. These campaigns are controlled and led by the very people who come through the café door, and as a result are focused on the real things that affect people in the area.
One of SNCK’s first campaigns focused on improving the state of social housing in the borough, following the shocking revelations over the dilapidated condition of flats in Norwood’s Regina Road. The apartments were found to have extensive mold problems, while residents complained of non-existent repair services.
Emma said: “We led the community campaign for Regina Road and the only reason we got involved in the first place was because we were doing food parcels for the residents and they told us ‘our flats are in a state'” was all before the report came out
“After the report came out we spoke to residents who came here and they said ‘it’s not just that flat’. Then we created the residents’ support group and at that point the former Labor council undermined the residents.”
Since then, SNCK has engaged in a myriad of other projects where they believe the municipality is not delivering to residents as it should. It was crucial in the recent campaign which saw Croydon’s two maintained nurseries, Crosfield and Selhurst, saved from possible closure by the council.
Homeless people sleep in garbage cans
Now SNCK’s focus has turned to the use of Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) across Croydon, and the very real impact it is having on the borough’s homeless population. PSPOs are a local authority-enforced restriction on certain activities in public areas; they are usually aimed at tackling anti-social behavior in urban areas.
Croydon currently has two active PSPOs in place in the borough, one in the city center and the other in Thornton Heath. But according to Emma and a number of SNCK volunteers, these orders are being used to police the homeless and “keep them out of sight”.
Emma pointed to the recent experiences of residents on the Tamworth Road estate, who live just outside the boundaries of Croydon town center PSPO. “I spoke to a member of the Tamworth Road Community Hub who said they are getting really vulnerable homeless people sleeping in the yard now because they have been moved off the high street because of the PSPO.
“They’re living in a garbage shed in a dark alley, just because they’ve been pushed out of the center. These are vulnerable people who are being criminalized.”
Some within SNCK fear that the newer Thornton Heath scheme will result in the same outcome for homeless people and that they will be displaced rather than engaged and supported with substance abuse and housing.
Croydon Council recently came under fire after an employee threatened legal action against one of the borough’s longest-running soup kitchens, Nightwatch, which operates seven days a week. While the council has since said it will not continue this action, some saw it as characteristic of its wider approach to homeless people in the borough.
Many of the 100+ volunteers who keep SNCK running have direct experience with homelessness and addiction. While they admit Croydon Council has become more approachable and transparent since the switch to a Tory administration in 2022, many feel the homelessness strategy needs fixing.
“The council put me in a building full of drug addicts when I recovered”
Hugo Seabra moved from his native Angola to the UK in 2000. Since living in the UK he has experienced ups and downs, including sleeping rough on the streets of Croydon and being involved in the 2016 Croydon tram crash.
He told LDRS: “Everything was good for the first 15 years, but the last eight years have been tough. I was one of the victims of the Croydon tram accident.
“After that I was in a really bad space and became homeless for a period because I didn’t want to be around people. The council eventually put me in Palmer House in East Croydon. It’s a haven for drug addicts, everyone there has an addiction and it I did too.
“I told them I hadn’t taken drugs in three weeks, and where did they put me? In a place full of drug addicts. You either chose a place to live but have the temptation of drugs or sleep badly and don’t have access to drugs.
“If I didn’t leave that place soon, I’d get hooked on crack cocaine again. Eventually I got out and found a new place. I started coming to lunch when SNCK held it at church on Saturdays. It grounded me.
“I got food and I was able to bring it home even though I was homeless and slept in a stairwell for three months. Having the foundation you need to get out of homelessness is so hard, so many of the people I knew when I was homeless is still out there.”
Emma believes that SNCK shows how the power of the community can be used to help homeless people, even when they struggle to access services through the council. In addition to food services, SNCK offers accommodation support and advice, while Calat offers language courses in premises next to the café.
Despite this, Emma and the volunteers are realistic. They recognize that the challenges facing people in the borough are many and cannot be solved easily.
They emphasize cooperation and have called themselves “critical friends” of the council. Emma said: “We try to work with ordinary people and work outside the structures that exist and try to stay as independent as we can, all we want from the council is for them to do what the community requires of them.”
She added: “We have to be realistic that people with serious problems such as addiction and trauma will not recover overnight. Some of them will never recover but that does not mean they are not members of our society.”
Yaba Henriette has been volunteering at SNCK for over a year and, although she may not admit it herself, is the driving force behind its creative and seasonal menu. She first came to access the food bank on the weekend before becoming a dedicated volunteer.
In a recent video posted by SNCK on their website, Yaba said, “For me, this is a blessed place because it made me recover. When I came here, my self-esteem was down, but SNCK was the place that made me come back to life.”
Before leaving the cafe we asked Emma why there aren’t more communal kitchens like theirs in Croydon. She replied saying: “There are a lot of empty buildings in Croydon. All you need is permission to use the building and some money, it doesn’t even cost that much. And you get it here.”
A Croydon Council spokesperson said: “We are committed to tackling the growing challenges of homelessness and rough sleeping through our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy. We recognize the importance of working with key organizations to achieve our shared goals.
“We remain dedicated to working closely with South Norwood Community Kitchen to identify and deliver long-term solutions that help residents safely off the streets and into stable housing. This includes working with public health to ensure that those affected by drug and alcohol problems receives the necessary support.
“The council commissions several housing and support services to tackle rough sleeping in the borough, including Palmer House, which provides accommodation for lone residents with a range of complex needs and offers wrap-around services to ensure they are comprehensively supported.
“Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) do not aim to target specific people, groups or properties, but seek to deal with anti-social behavior that has been reported within a specific area of Croydon.”
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