So, a number of intrepid adventurers associated with the Treehouse Café have, for reasons not even quite clear to them, decided to put themselves up for raising some cash for the slightly beleaguered but much loved social centre by cycling the Coast to Coast – from one side of England to the other, through the Lake District, over the Pennines, and through onto the east coast with its wonderful sun rises and candyfloss.  Leaving on the 24^th June, the trip will hopefully be around 150 miles and take 4 days of cycling.

The centre has, in recent times, hit some financial problems which has sparked some much needed revisioning, re-energising and restructuring.  Lots of brilliant fundraising has been happening, and any amount of sponsorship for the cyclists, however small, would be warmly appreciated.

If you would like to sponsor our cyclists, get involved yourself or learn more about what’s going on at Treehouse then email workgroup@treehousecafe.org

Though better than we thought, this is only a short term solution that will give us a bit of breathing space.

At 6pm on Tuesday 20th April there will be a public meeting, held at Treehouse, for anyone with a vested interest in the cafe, the curious, those who want to get more involved… everyone! The Treehouse needs a radical change in thinking and organisation to be sustainable. It needs more people and commitment, and in the short term, some serious fun fundraising needs to happen. It needs recognising and using as an alternative social space, not just a cafe. It needs cake. Though there are plenty of options, exactly how this happens is pretty much open to any suggestions. Don’t leave it to others – now is the time to get involved, next month might be too late!

Saving the Treehouse is important. Its history is rooted in the original Fair Trade Cafe. As in, the first fair trade cafe in the whole wide world. Supporting local refugees, alternative mental health groups, providing locally sourced, organic and fair trade food and drink, volunteer work experience and employment opportunities, supporting campaign groups, and being just a relaxing and friendly alternative to Starbucks! Bradford cannot lose this space.

Please pass this on to any of your contacts or lists who feel might be interested; we want to publicise these changes and opportunities to get involved to the widest possible audience. Sorry if you get this email more than once!

Thanks,

The Treehouse Team.

Cheers,
Cafe Collective
http://www.treehousecafe.org/

Hello everyone!
Sometimes Bradford Centre for Non-Violence and Treehouse Cafe operate in such a bubble of activity, energy and daily elbow grease that we forget to publicly open our arms and welcome new ideas, people and enthusiasm into the fold. Today is not one of those days. The Centre would not exist if it were not for the passion people put into it. But this is not a one way process- getting involved at the BCNV can open up a whole new world of friendship, job experience, shared skills and perhaps most importantly, a renewed belief in the power of small collectives to cooperatively create brilliant things. Our doors are open, come join in the fun!

Cafe Co-ordinator position.
We are a pleased to announce that a new position for Cafe Co-ordinator is now available. This is a paid position for 10 hours a week, incorporating a day coordinating the cafe and extra hours for other tasks in helping to run the Treehouse. We’re looking for people with a passion for ethical cooking, experience in cafe work or large catering and awareness of the BCNV and it’s politics. Email us at info@treehousecafe.org or pop in to the cafe for a applicant’s pack. Ideal candidates will be available to start work soon and continue after the summer break into next September and the following year.

Workgroup.
The BCNV workgroup is a mixture of cafe workers and volunteers, Directors and people who want to help out with the general running of the Centre. We are currently very keen to get some new people involved. If you’d like to find out about or pitch in with any of following things, we would love to have you:

• Publicity – Flyer designing and printing, videos, internet, website updating.
• Outside Catering – Getting outside catering jobs, cooking lots of lovely food outside of the normal cafe.
• Finance – helping with funding bids, doing accounts, helping with pricing and wages.
• Events – organizing gigs, parties and meals. Helping other people to make sure there events are as brilliant as possible.
• Health and Safety / maintenance – doing odd jobs around the place, fixing stuff, liaising with the Church about repairs, helping train people in Food Hygiene and making sure we are up to speed with the latest Health and Safety laws.

Shop.
You may have noticed recently that our shop has started expanding. If you have any ideas or time to help make this even better, do get in touch. A few of us would like to see some kind of small-scale food co-op being run independently, but find our time devoted to cafe itself, perhaps you could spearhead such a thing?! There is currently a food co-op meeting sporadically to make collective orders, but perhaps a regularly re-stocked shop front is also in order?

Children’s Peace Library / Yellow room.
There’s currently some exciting rejuvenation going on with the Children’s Peace Library and the back room we affectionately call ‘Yellow’. Perhaps you have some ideas about how the space and the resources we have at the BCNV could be better used? Any budding librarians, decorators, interior designers  or people with lots of nice furniture they’d like to give us, get in touch!

Events.
As mentioned in the Workgroup section, events are a vital part of the BCNV. We’re currently making a push to get more people involved in running music nights, meals, zine fairs, poetry readings – anything! – All ideas welcome. Email us, or pop in to the cafe / a meeting for a chat.

Festivals.
We’re currently waiting to hear back about which festivals the BCNV might be able to send people to through the brilliant Worker’s Beer Company. This means going to a festival for free, working a shift a day (with wages going to the BCNV!) and getting to dance, sing and party the rest of the time! Winner! Let us know if you are interested so we can divvy up the places when we know which festivals we will be working at.

Community Cook-Off!
I’m hoping to do a monthly video at the Treehouse showcasing the best of Bradford’s cooking talent.
Nobody cares about Jamie Oliver or Hugh Fearnley-blahblahblah, I’d much rather see what you guys cook when you need to show off. The only rules are that is has to be filmed at the Treehouse (for ease), be vegetarian and use as much ethical produce as you can muster. You can define ‘ethical’ yourselves, whether it means healthy, something anyone can try, vegan, locally sourced or whatever. It’s about showing how tasty, ethical food dosnt have to be expensive or endorsed by celebrity chefs. We’ll be putting the videos on our website so people can try out your recipes, and maybe even getting them broadcast on the Big Screen Bradford! Email to pitch your recipe ideas.
Also, in a flagrant rip off of our friends in Leeds, we’re hoping to host a ‘Ready Steady Skip!’ evening sometime soon, where two teams spend a day skipping for tasty food and then an hour cooking up what they have found into a meal for them and the audience. Let us know if that’s something you fancy…

Events Guide

What’s Our Swap?

In honour of Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 Treehouse will be making a Fairtrade Swap. Alongside our regular fairtrade drinks we will be adding a few extra goodies to our menu, meaning that all of our speciality teas and coffees will be Fairtrade. All of these products will be available to buy both at the cafe and on our shop shelves so come down and make your swap to Fairtrade.

Black Gold – Wednesday 3rd of March – 8pm
On Wednesday the 3rd of March as part of Treehouse Film Club we will be showing Black Gold. As westerners revel in designer lattes and cappuccinos, impoverished Ethiopian coffee growers suffer the bitter taste of injustice. In this eye-opening expose of the multi-billion dollar industry, Black Gold traces one man’s fight for a fair price. This is an all ages film and is very informative as to why we need fair trade. £2 entrance. BYOB.

Three Course Meal – Friday 5th of March- 6pm

Once again Treehouse will be hosting our monthly three course meal and this time our focus is….Fairtrade! This will be a mouth watering extravaganza of local and organic vegetables and the finest ingredients Fairtrade has to offer. There will also be a chance to win bucketfuls of goodies in our Fairtrade raffle. Places are only available through booking ahead so please contact us by the 1st of March to make your booking.

Open Mic Tea Party – Saturday 6th of March – 7-10pm
To top off a fortnight of Fairtrade celebrations we will be holding a Open Mic Tea Party. We will have a range of drinks, cakes and hot food for you to enjoy as a mix of Bradfordian musicians and artists get the night going. We will also be joined one of Bradford’s most active DIY publication groups - Clap Trap. Come and leaf through some of Clap Traps latest issues, take part in making the next issue or just sit back and enjoy the evening. BYOB.