A new community cafe has officially opened in Glasgow, with a special event.
Toshie's, run by The Courtyard Pantry Enterprise, opened its doors six weeks ago and finally celebrated the occasion.
For the event, staff were visited by Kingsley, the mascot of Partick Thistle.
Dale Todd, managing director of the charity, said: “Toshie’s is a community café based in Garscube Road. It’s the next stage of our development after launching the Courtyard Pantry.
“It allows us two things: to provide well-paid jobs in the hospitality industry and to provide a warm, welcoming café in the heart of Maryhill.
“We have been overwhelmed with the positive response from businesses and people who live in the local area.
“They have enjoyed the menu and they are loving the general setting, people are coming in, warming themselves up and getting a warm tea or coffee and cake or sandwich.
“It’s a normal café but we are looking at hosting events and community get-togethers and we are working with our partners to set that up."
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The North Glasgow cafe, much like the organisation, aims to reduce unemployment as well as provide affordable food and beverages.
He said: “We are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 3pm.
“We have all paid members of staff, we picked them primarily from the local community. We recruited people that normally face barriers to employment.
“It’s part of the charity’s purpose to tackle poverty through the creation of jobs for people who face barriers to employment, and we have done that with Toshie’s."
Toshie's is named after Charles Rennie Mackintosh, in a thoughtful gesture.
Mr Todd added: “Toshie is a nickname that Margaret Macintosh, Charles’ wife gave him.
“We are located a block away from Queen’s Cross Chuch, which was designed by him, so we wanted to pay respect to the location.
“You will also notice that within the cafe, there are homages to Mackintosh, we just wanted to pay homage."
The Courtyard Pantry officially opened in March 2021 in response to the pandemic, with support from Queen’s Cross Housing Association, FareShare and The Scottish Pantry Network.
It is based on Wester Common Drive and runs multiple projects to support the local community.
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