The fight begins after the services disappear from the main street of the city

Many small towns are lamenting the loss of their community center. Whether it was a pub, bank, post office or GP surgery, these places are disappearing from our high streets all too quickly.

But one town in south-east Cornwall has reinvented its center – and it’s one that’s fitting for a compassionate community that looks to the future as much as it mourns the past.

What started purely as an information center for the people of Saltash first turned into a gift shop. But it snowballed first in an innovative scheme to share food that would otherwise go to waste, and then in a series of initiatives that make up Community Enterprises PL12 (CEPL12).

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The Community Interest Company not only helps to feed the city’s residents and prevent food waste, but also strives to prevent anyone from feeling isolated by providing a warm place to meet, transport and social activities, staffed by friendly volunteers.

Although CEPL12 was created before the pandemic, it was Covid that really established the non-profit initiative as a hub for the Saltash community. Since opening two years ago, the kitchen has exceeded the expectations of the passionate group of volunteers who dreamed up the idea. It has hundreds of visitors every week and serves dozens of meals.

But it is the ability to provide food for the soul that really motivates the volunteer directors and dozens of other helpers who are now part of the organization.