Emily Gabb is the local Repair Cafe Manager.
It reopens tomorrow for its monthly session at the KGV between 11:00 and 14:30 alongside a Clothes Swap giving attendees a double chance to make the most of ‘Secondhand September’ – itself an initiative to reduce waste by encouraging recycling, and reusing.
While the Repair Cafe is free to attend, along with weekly pop-ups held at other times and locations, the Clothes Swap has a participation fee of £2 per person.
The idea of that event is that people can take along up to 10 items of good quality clean clothing for both men and women including shoes and accessories to swap.
Above: Secondhand September is an initiative attributed to Oxfam. It was launched in 2019 as a way of encouraging sustainable lifestyles.
Ms Gabb said more people are turning up every month to the twin events, while the Repair Cafe also holds drop-in sessions at other places and can do pop-up cafes at workplaces or other organisations.
“The event is growing monthly and last month saw nearly 300 items of clothing come in for swapping and over 20 repairs from around 50 participants,” said Ms Gabb.
Pictured: The Repair Cafe is manned by volunteers with a variety of skillsets.
Ms Gabb hopes people will take up the opportunity to not just have repairs carried out but to learn new skills themselves where possible.
“As a society, we have lost our ‘make do and mend’ mentality; many of our products (e.g. clothes and electrical items) are cheap and are not built to last, and we are losing the skills necessary to make repairs when we need to,” she said.
“This fast cycle of ‘make-use-discard’ is having a devastating impact on the environment and makes little financial or common sense. The Repair Café aims to break that cycle and persuade people to repair instead of discard, by providing a free and friendly place where people can bring their items and get the help they need to repair, adjust, or upcycle them.”
With growing numbers of attendees every time the Repair Cafe and Clothes Swap are held, Ms Gabb is also offering their services to other groups including businesses.
Ms Gabb encouraged people to go along tomorrow with any damaged item they have such as lamps, toasters, broken zips on clothing and bags, dropped hems, and children’s toys.
“We welcome everyone from the community. Our cafes are free to attend, however donations are welcome,” she said.
“Learning a new skill and developing a mending mindset underpins the principles of the project, and because of this we do not offer a drop-off/pick-up service.”
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