This is our café – a place to eat, meet and hang out. We offer good food to those who find it difficult to do regular shopping and cook nutritious meals at home. We make all our food from fresh ingredients – and we try to use organic products as much as possible. The meals at Café 24 match the standard of traditional meals served in ordinary Danish homes.
Our café is used as a meeting place for people on their way into town, or for those who want to hang out and play cards or board games in a relaxed atmosphere. The café has rooms for those who want to watch TV in company, or who like talking to people they find in the café – both guests and staff.
Occasionally a network develops between the café’s users that extends beyond the confines of Linnésgade.
Among the café’s guests are people who draw, paint or play music. For them, the café can function as a mini-gallery that exhibits new paintings every month. And occasionally, after dinner, it becomes a kind of music café with singing, games and cakes
Café 24 is run by a team of experienced, qualified staff and part-time students. Everyone that works in the café has been on the state’s compulsory hygiene course. However, we welcome users who like to be helpful with the cooking and if they don’t have a hygiene certificate, they can still join in with simple tasks such as cleaning vegetables and stacking plates.
We have long-term employees who have overcome their own mental health problems, and who are now responsible for managing the day-to-day running of the café. They know all the ins and outs of the café’s routines and the particular peculiarities of each guest, so they supervise the paid-by-the-hour staff.
Café 24 always has two staff on hand who have first-hand experience of mental health problems. Their job, that they defined themselves, is to welcome the café’s new guests and make sure they feel comfortable there.
They also offer their support to users who begin to feel unwell. The support they offer can be simple and practical. If the situation calls for a more complicated response, and if the user wants it, one of our counsellors can take over.
There are times when the guests and the Café 24 team come together as a single unit; once, when we were two people short in the kitchen, two Café 24 guests helped out by peeling 25kg of potatoes, and dinner was served on time.