Full time Monday – Friday 07:30-3.30
Are you an experienced café, hospitality or catering professional looking for a role where you can combine commercial success with real social impact?
We are seeking an enthusiastic and entrepreneurial Community Café Manager to lead the WestRaven Community Café. This is an exciting opportunity to manage a thriving community enterprise that provides affordable, nutritious food while creating a welcoming space for local residents to connect, learn and thrive.
About the Role
As Community Café Manager, you will oversee the day-to-day operation of the café, ensuring it is a safe, welcoming and successful environment for customers, volunteers and colleagues. You will lead a small team, develop engaging community activities, manage budgets and stock, maintain excellent food standards, and help grow the café as a sustainable community business.
This role offers the chance to make a genuine difference by bringing people together, supporting community wellbeing, and creating opportunities linked to employability and education.
Key Responsibilities
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Lead the daily operation of the Community Café, ensuring excellent customer service and a welcoming atmosphere.
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Manage and support café staff and volunteers through effective supervision, training and development.
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Develop attractive, affordable menus using fresh, seasonal produce.
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Maximise income while maintaining value for customers and careful control of costs and stock.
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Organise community events and activities that increase engagement and café attendance.
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Build relationships with community groups, local stakeholders, funders and business customers.
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Promote and market the café to attract new customers and visitors.
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Maintain the café's 5-star food hygiene standards and ensure compliance with HACCP processes.
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Manage budgets, cash handling, banking and financial reporting.
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Identify funding and grant opportunities to support the long-term success of the café.
About You
Essential
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Experience managing or establishing a café, restaurant or similar hospitality operation.
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Previous experience in a kitchen environment preparing meals for larger numbers of customers.
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Experience of menu planning and delivering quality, value and choice.
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Leadership experience with the ability to motivate, support and develop a team.
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Experience of budget management, stock control and cash handling.
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Experience working with and supporting volunteers.
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Excellent customer service, organisational and communication skills.
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Level 3 Food Hygiene Certificate.
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Minimum Level 2 qualification in Culinary Skills, Professional Cookery or equivalent.
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Full UK driving licence.
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Enhanced DBS required
Desirable
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Experience developing and delivering business plans.
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Experience managing a community café or community enterprise.
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Experience in marketing and promoting hospitality businesses.
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Coaching, training and development skills.
Why Join Us?
This is more than a café management role. It is an opportunity to lead a community hub that improves lives, supports local people and creates a lasting positive impact. If you are passionate about hospitality, community engagement and making a difference, we would love to hear from you.
Full job description available below:
A commercial business with a social heart, our vision is to create opportunities that change lives through our drive, expertise, resources and passion.
Our dynamic approach has made us one of the region’s leading providers of affordable homes for rent and sale. Developing new homes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and the surrounding area, we’re committed to increasing the supply of affordable homes in the communities where they are needed most. Agility and innovation are central to our approach to adapting to change, and we’ll continue to grow our business in today’s fast-paced operating environment.
There’s more to building communities than building houses. In addition to providing quality homes and delivering excellent landlord services, we also provide care at home and at our two extra care communities in Peterborough as well as around the clock support through our LifeLine personal alarm service. Our community investment programme sees us working with specialist partners to bring a range of employment, wellbeing and family-friendly services to the heart of our communities, with a rapidly expanding digital support offer too.
You can find out more and the on the CKH website.
Members of the National Housing Federation, PlaceShapers, Homes for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the CBI and BuildEast.
