Certainly, Jane. NANA is a comfort food and craft cafe hosted by lovely older ladies from the local area (Hackney and Clapton). We're serving up traditional, home-cooked favourites all at a reasonable price. Think dippy egg and soldiers, massive sandwiches, hearty soups and dangerous amounts of tea and cake.
Over half of people aged over 65 in the UK say they feel lonely. We hate the thought of people being stuck indoors with no one to talk to and nothing to do. This is when we thought - why not give retired ladies a reason to get out of the house and put all those years worth of nurturing and chat to good use?
We concentrate on ladies who are over 65 and looking for something to do with their free time. They work one shift a week in the cafe, taking food orders, chatting with customers and entertaining kids while their parents get a moment to eat their food!
Since December 2012 we've been trialing the concept in our local pub (which is normally shut in the day). We poured over 2,000 cups of tea, had over 15 NANAs involved and received some great feedback.
The main thing that kept popping up when talking to NANAs and customers is that we need a home of our own. We're really grateful for the opportunity to get ourselves started, but now we want to take it up a gear by opening longer hours and on weekends in a space that's our own.
And that's where the Kickstarter comes in. It needs to raise £15,000 by 1st October to enable Nanas to convert a derelict building in Clapton to a permanent home for Nanas. So far there are over 300 backers and just over£10,000 has been pledged, but unless the £15,000 target is reached, next Tuesday the Kickstarter appeal will come to an end without funding. So we are appealing to Gransnetters to support us, even with a small pledge, to help us to reach that target.
