Highland Hospice has announced that it will be taking over the Archie Cafe in the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness, re-opening it as ‘In the City Café’ to the public in March. This will be the Hospice’s second café, having opened their ‘By the River café’ in the Hospice on Bishop’s Road in 2016.
Cobbs has formed a charity partnership with the Hospice, beginning earlier this month with their ‘Random Act of Kindness’ initiative. Through this, their cafes gave out coffee vouchers with every purchase asking people to pass them on to make someone’s day, in return for a donation to the Hospice.
Highland Hospice’s Head of Fundraising Andrew Leaver said, “This is an exciting new venture for Highland Hospice and we are grateful to Cobbs for this wonderful opportunity and to the Eastgate Centre Management for their assistance. I would also like to say a huge thank you to The ARCHIE Foundation who have been running the café up until now and have gifted us their equipment. This will greatly help us with our opening and will ensure that the community continues to benefit from the café being open.”
David Wood, Chief Executive of The ARCHIE Foundation, said: 'We have hugely enjoyed running the ARCHIE Cafe for years and any surplus made has always gone to support our work at the Highland Children's Unit.
'We want to offer our sincere thanks to Cobbs, with whom we've worked in partnership for several years, as well as the cafe staff, the Eastgate Centre management and, most importantly all the customers.
‘The decision to stop operating the cafe was not taken lightly and was made to allow us to focus all our efforts in the Highlands on fundraising for the Highland Children's Unit so that we can best support the children, families and staff at the Unit.'
Fraser Campbell, Managing Director of Cobbs said, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Highland Hospice on their new café and look forward to continuing to serve our regular customers as well as welcoming new ones”.
Profits from the Highland Hospice In the City Café will be directed towards the Crocus child and young person bereavement service at Highland Hospice. Crocus has been a part of Highland Hospice since early 2018 and supports over 100 children and young people coming to terms with the loss of a loved one every year.
Highland Hospice will receive the keys to their new In the City Café on Friday 28th February.