St Andrews social enterprise cafe We Are Zest in running for prestigious award

The multi-award-winning South Street café, which supports people with additional needs to help them learn valuable work skills in order to achieve or maintain employment, is one of eight finalists for the Community Award.

It recognises small businesses which support their local community, either as their mission or make a positive impact through employee-led activities, donations or other means. Each had to submit evidence of successful community business performance or measurable support and impact.

Zest, which has worked alongside Fife Council Supported Employment, Job Centre Plus and HMP Castle Huntly since 2008 to provide learning opportunities through work placements and supporting staff through SVQ qualifications, shared its work to maximise its environmental sustainability and supporting young people through Modern Apprenticeships, Kickstart work experience, student internships and a money management workshop to help them with the increased Cost of Living.

Evidence for success and impact included winning a Fife Business Diversity Award, Highly Commended in The Menu Awards Independent Café category last year and owner Lisa Cathro being accredited as a Disability Confident Leader by DWP, one of only two in Fife.

The Scotland Final of the awards takes place on March 8 in Glasgow, with category winners going forward to the UK Final with other regional winners.

Lisa says she’s particularly pleased to have Zest’s work recognised with this new award shortlisting as it will show other social enterprises and third sector organisations that you can be viable through funding from trading rather than having to rely on external funding via grants and donations from the public and private sectors.

“People are giving less to charities because of the Cost of Living crisis, which is understandable. So we can no longer be reliant on donations and grants to survive and have deliberately built our business model around being a self-sustaining organisation.

“Like other hospitality businesses out there in the community, we’re still facing the huge challenges posed by rates increases, food inflation, energy costs etc, but we’re showing that even with those challenges a social enterprise can still remain viable while helping the community it was set up to assist.

“That cannot be achieved without the extremely hard work of our staff, interns and people on placement, so a huge thanks goes to them for their hard work and dedication. This is rightful recognition for them, too.”

In addition to its employment philosophy, Zest believes in a great quality product served by an enthusiastic, motivated, and well-trained team.

Zest only uses high-quality loose leaf tea and ethically-sourced specialty-grade coffee.

For more about We Are Zest and how it supports its staff, visit the organisations dedicated website at: https://wearezest.co.uk/journal/