Pembroke Soup opened the doors at Pembroke Town Hall to welcome four community groups to share with the community what they do, how they do it and what they may need to help them on saturday, November 4. This month, it was the turn of Foundry Craft Group, Community Café Project Group; Response Pastors and VC Gallery.

“The aim of Pembroke Soup is to help community groups to share their project with others and it remains astonishing how many groups are working in the community to the benefit of the community and any publicity we can give them and encouragement, is all to the good,” said Pembroke Soup organiser Joan Marsh.

“We have a team, all of us are volunteers, and we provide a range of home made soups with crusty bread donated from Pembroke Co-op. The money raised of £4 per head at the door is given in its entirety to community groups needing a bit of cash and how money is distributed is decided by the votes of people as they choose their soup.”

So what did we find out this month?

There’s a craft group that meets in Foundry House on Wednesday afternoon from 2-4 pm. This group is a very relaxed, without a ‘teacher’ as such. Marcia Whitehead, who organises the group, explained that the group provides friendship, encouragement and an opportunity to learn from one-another. Marcia had brought a large quilt she is working on, but she explained that crafts are many and various. Bring an unfinished project along and get it finished. Learn new ideas and skills from each other, compare notes, discuss patterns, designs, fabrics etc, try something new and show off your work. So if you enjoy a relaxed afternoon with company and a cuppa and biscuit, come along - it only costs £2.

Georgie and Patty from the Community Café Project shared the vision of a community café that aims to be a place where people are welcome to just come and relax, spend time and have a light meal - maybe soup and sandwiches to start with. They shared how the café would aim to reduce food wastage, and illustrated very graphically the amount of food that each household on average throws away. The aim would be to use food where possible, which may have reached its ‘best before’ date (not the ‘use by’) and donated by supermarkets to provide nutritious and inexpensive light meals. They shared a poster asking for volunteers who may be interested in a range of roles that will be needed, from food preparation to collection of donated food and helping serve. They shared the hope to begin the project early in January with just one day a week in Foundry House, Pembroke. If anyone is interested in this project, please contact Alison at Foundry House on 01646 680090.

Lyn Edwards spoke about the rescue pastors. Folk at Pembroke Soup had heard previously of the Street Pastors and indeed if people were to be up late on a Saturday night, the street pastors can often been seen offering support and kindness to those who are out late. Rescue pastors are trained street pastors who have received additional training to respond to a large incident, again with whatever support and kindness that can be offered. Such an incident may be a large scale search for a missing person or terrorist incident; natural or industrial disaster. Lyn explained that the Pembrokeshire team is the only team in Wales to have this additional training and thus could be called upon anywhere in the country. Lyn was not asking for funds, but all who heard her speak were impressed and grateful for the commitment and dedication of the team.

Barry John spoke about the VC Gallery and the many support workshops that stem from it. He explained that VC stands for Veterans and Community. It was established to support veterans from the armed forces who find it difficult to adjust to civilian life, using art as a medium to help with this. John himself was an artist within the forces and saw the need for support after leaving the forces. He explained: “The majority of our armed forces fare well after leaving the armed forces, however for those who need support, the VC Gallery, which is based on the High Street in Haverfordwest, is ‘a single point of access welfare and support hub for veterans.’ John explained that “the studio offers the opportunity for people from all walks of life to express themselves through art. Community members are able to exhibit their works for members of the public to see and purchase. Above all, the VC Gallery is a welcome and inclusive location that provides visitors with a sense of place.” Now additionally, the VC Gallery team is providing support to others, young or old, people with mental or physical disabilities and to anyone who feels alone, disadvantaged or isolated. He illustrated his talk with pictures of projects - some undertaken with elderly within care homes and some at youth clubs and community centres with young people who may be finding life tough. If you are interested in finding out more about the VC Gallery, John invites people to call into the gallery at 30 High Street, Haverfordwest, or ’phone him on 01437 765873.

Donations were given by Pembroke Soup of £75 to VC Gallery and £50 to Community Café Project as the two groups seeking funding to help their projects.

Next Pembroke Soup is a Christmas special where each of the groups who have spoken during 2017 are invited to have a table for publicity or fundraising as they choose, but the organisation to whom the Soup event money will go is Air Ambulance.

The event will run for the longer time of 11 am - 2 pm, but soup will be served as usual. Entry £4.