A NEW social enterprise cafe in west Belfast to provide training opportunities for catering students. The Loaf cafe on Springfield Road has also created three full-time positions. A collaboration between Loaf Catering and Spring-vale Employment and Learning Solutions, it is based at Springvale's learning centre headquarters. Later this year there are plans for a new Loaf cafe, bakery and community hub on the site of the last derelict building on Belfast's Grosvenor Road. Maeve Monaghan, chief executive of Loaf's parent organisation, NOW, said the cafe was a "win-win for both organisations". "Loaf has a thriving new business, Springvale Employment and Learning Solutions has a quality, onsite catering provider and new jobs and training placements are created," she said. "When done right, 'Buying Social' is a no-brainer, it's just a better deal for everyone. "We run a profit-making cafe and corporate catering business, so it's just what we do with our profit that is different. We are keen to encourage other businesses, large and small, to think of ways to integrate social enterprise into their supply chain. "This collaboration shows a planned approach to business growth. "We have used the Spring-vale Learning Centre cafe to launch our new Loaf brand and hope to roll this out to our two other cafes over the next 12 months." Springvale chief executive Aidan Sloane said: "We are delighted to collaborate with NOW in this exciting venture. Having a Loaf cafe on-site makes sense for us. Not only does it offer a healthier food choice at great value for our staff and learners, it also has created placements for our catering learners. "The choice of Loaf cafe as our catering supplier was an easy decision to make. As a social enterprise, its ethos is in line with ours - creating employment opportunities to improve people's lives."
