Farnham’s Repair Cafe
receives King’s Award for Voluntary Service

The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) can announce that our partner venture, Farnham Repair Cafe, has received the King’s Award for Voluntary Service to celebrate its volunteers and impact on the local community.

14 Nov 2024

Receiving charity status in 2017, Farnham Repair Cafe (FRC) is supported by its partners: UCA, Farnham Town Council, and the Spire Church. Over the years it has become a vital resource for Farnham residents to repair broken or faulty items, reduce waste, and save money.

The Mayor of Farnham, Councillor Brodie Mauluka said: “This is a much-deserved award for a wonderful group of local volunteers. Farnham Town Council is pleased to have supported FRC from the outset and to have helped with their transition to a charity status. Farnham is very lucky to have such an effective group which is doing so much to give a new lease of life to items that would otherwise end up in landfill.”

The cafe operates monthly at The Spire Church in Farnham, welcoming almost 6,000 product owners and successfully repairing more than two thousand items, including irons, kettles, mechanical items, furniture, laptops, bikes, clocks, clothing, and textiles. This has resulted in diverting over seven tonnes of waste from landfills, avoided over sixty-eight tonnes of carbon emissions, and saved residents an estimated £220,000 in replacement costs.

Everything is done by volunteers, from repairs, running the welcome desk, and marketing to fundraising and strategy. Since starting in February 2015 volunteers have contributed their time and expertise, contributing an estimated 2,220 hours a year. The repairers have an amazing set of skills and decades of experience spanning electrical and mechanical engineering, software development, textiles, carpentry, and much more.

Professor Martin Charter, Founder and Chair of FRC and Director of UCA’s Centre for Sustainable Design, said:

Our volunteers are the heart and soul of this initiative. Their passion for repair not only helps individuals save money but also contributes to the larger goal of reducing CO2 emissions and combating the throwaway culture. We are thrilled to have received this recognition.”

Clive Handy, a long-time volunteer added, “I joined FRC shortly after it started and after I had retired as a jet engineer. For me, the best part is when you’ve fixed a product and you feel the gratitude of the owner and the sense of achievement that something has been saved from landfill. The camaraderie with my ‘fellow fixers’, many of whom have become friends over the years, is also important to me.”

Mike Baker, satisfied product owner, stated, “I enjoy the fantastic community atmosphere of FRC. I always have excellent service from FRC repairers and have had a number of successful repairs completed that have included a complicated hi-fi cassette player. In addition, both me and my daughter were incredibly grateful to FRC textiles team who have a brought back to life a teddy bear and Basil Brush.”

FRC also supports the wider repair movement by welcoming and sharing best practices with other groups keen to set up repair cafes in their towns, initiating a knowledge-sharing network with over 20 local repair cafes – the Greater Surrey Repair Cafe Network– and designing a repair carbon calculator that is used by more than 100 repair cafes worldwide.

To find out more visit the FRC website https://frc.cfsd.org.uk/

Learn more about the Kings Award for Voluntary Service: https://kavs.dcms.gov.uk