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Coffee tasting and garden improvements

Coffee tasting and garden improvements were on the menu for members of our Coffee Club, who have enjoyed a bumper session thanks to special guests from Starbucks and the National Citizen Service.

Martin, manager of Starbucks at The Oracle, Riverside came to teach club members all about coffee and showed everyone the proper way to taste coffee.

We learnt where coffee beans were grown, how they were picked and processed and even how decaf coffee was made!

Big thanks to Martin and his team who have gone above and beyond supporting us. They always make us feel at home whenever we visit or visit us and we’re really honoured they’ve chosen to work with us.

Recently, Martin and his team have served their coffee at our open afternoon at Harris Garden, kindly given us raffle prizes and they are letting us be in store to raising awareness of Reading Mencap on Wednesday 12 September from 10am – 12 noon.

Young people aged 15 – 17 who are taking part in the National Citizen Service (NCS) have helped Coffee Club enhance their enjoyment of the facilities at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), where the club meets.

Two weeks ago, NCS asked Coffee Clubbers what would make their MERL experience better – and they came up with ideas about making the MERL garden more accessible.

Since then the young people went away and planned and fundraised for the afternoon’s activities.

On their return they presented to us what they have been working on and we painted rocks and plant pots to add to the herb garden to create a colourful space all year round.

We also decorated cupcakes together and ate afternoon tea together, prepared by NCS.

It was lovely to see young people support, interact, laugh and joke with Coffee Clubbers. The staff with the young people reported that they had been really nervous about meeting them the first time as they didn’t know what to expect but they all loved their experience.

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