By Tom Degun

The Camden SocietyMay 7 - The first café on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford will be operated by London-based charity The Camden Society and named Unity Kitchen Café, it has been announced.


The café will be one of four permanent cafes and four permanent kiosks across the 226 hectare site and will be the first to open on the Park next month.

The announcement comes as the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) revealed that all permanent sites on the Park will be required to sign up to the Food Legacy Pledge and the Healthier Catering Commitment in a move to encourage healthy eating on the site.

"The Camden Society will create a great new facility in the Unity Kitchen Café and provide jobs and training opportunities for local people," said Legacy Company chief executive Dennis Hone.

"We are delighted that this will continue the commitment to food standards that were adopted during the Games."

Unity Kitchen Café will be located in the north of the Park at the newly built Timberlodge.

It has space for up to 80 indoor diners and a further 100 at table seating outside.

"London's Games raised the bar in terms of serving up food that met high standards, not only in terms of taste but also through a commitment to improved food quality and animal welfare," said the London Food Board chair and Mayor of London's Food Advisor Rosie Boycott.

"This showed that good catering can be achieved even when working to tight commercial budgets.

"We adopted these standards at City Hall and urged others to do the same, so I am delighted that visitors to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park's Unity Kitchen Café will continue to enjoy tasty grub served up by a company that's committed to providing good food."
 
Unity Kitchen CaféLondon Food Board chair Rosie Boycott and LLDC chief executive Dennis Hone have welcomed Unity Kitchen Café as the first café on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Unity Kitchen is a chain of six catering social enterprises run by The Camden Society.

The outlets provide training and apprenticeship opportunities for people with learning disabilities and profits are used to fund further training and employment opportunities.

The Camden Society campaigns for the rights of people with learning disabilities and supports them in living full and independent lives.

The charity delivers housing support, employment and community services across London and in Oxfordshire for over 600 people a week.

"Unity Kitchen Café will contribute to the creation of a new and vibrant public space in the heart of east London," said The Camden Society chairman Gerald Oppenheim.

"We aim to make the most of the training and employment opportunities which the café will offer to people with disabilities, as it will be an additional venue for in-work training of our apprentices."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]