Dreams do come true, and your tastebuds are in for a dreamy vegan treat too
‘Feel-good story of the year’ is a term you might link to a Hollywood hit or the No 1 literary seller of the day, but in the Mitcham’s Corner area something pretty amazing has happened to create Cambridge’s first vegan cafe in quick fashion.
It’s called Stem + Glory, on Chesterton Road, and is the delicious icing on a hugely impressive crowdfunding cake.
Just six years ago CamYoga began classes in Cambridge and two years later added Shelford as a second base. A cafe for members at Shelford was soon set up but the city classes needed a home that could incorporate a 100{b486c5a37ab2d325d17e17d701cb2567b1ecd1814e8ceb33effa2a4f1f171d46} vegan cafe open to the public alongside a purpose-built yoga studio.
A crowdfunding campaign was set up on 30 August to raise £35,000, to be put alongside funds from other sources to create the facility. Just 21 days later, thanks to 288 backers, they raised £97,615.
No funds needed from outside bodies, just members love and backing to the nth degree.
Work to convert the space was carried out so quickly that Stem + Glory opened on 17 October and is currently open on weekdays 8.30am-8pm. It will begin to serve weekend brunches, alongside truly tempting drinks, from 29 October (weekend opening will be 9am-4pm, brunch served 10am-3pm).
The menu has a feast of flavours from around the world, with breakfast served from 8.30am and lunches from 11.30am. You can fill a box with your own choice of delights to eat in or takeaway. A regular box is £6.60 or you can go large for £7.70. For lunch you could have seasonal vegetable curry, mock ‘meat’ balls. Moroccan Tagine, stir-fried veggies with teriyaki tofu, beetroot, walnut and quinoa patties, moussaka or sesame aubergine.
That’s just a selection from the hot lunch menu, there are a wide range of cold slaws, or noodle salad or vegan patés to tempt you. While a little fava bean hummus with tahini could go with just about anything you fancy. Drinks include coconut cooler and lavender lemonade.
During the week (following those tasty lunch options), snacks and drinks are served up until 8pm with evening meals to be available soon. From 3pm each day food will be at a low price to those on low incomes and at the end of each day any remaining food will be donated.
CamYoga classes in the new yoga suite are also up and running, and the organisation has a social enterprise heart that provides means-tested membership options, those rehabilitating from injury given a 100{b486c5a37ab2d325d17e17d701cb2567b1ecd1814e8ceb33effa2a4f1f171d46} subsidy on their membership and means-tested bursaries for teacher training candidates who cannot afford the full fee, who will use their teaching qualification to benefit a section of the community in need.
