VILLAGERS are hoping to grow their own food and sell it at a new community centre and cafe.

Volunteer group Talking Shop this week signed a 50- year lease on an annexe at Sandford-on-Thames Village Hall.

They are planning to install a £20,000 kitchen to cook fresh vegetables grown in the garden outside.

The group hopes to rent out the hall and kitchen for cookery classes, vegetablegrowing lessons and other food workshops.

Our top stories

Talking Shop chairwoman Abi Johnson said: “We want to rebuild those neighbourly networks that provide support and reduce isolation.”

The mum-of-two from Church Road said Talking Shop was founded because – with no school, pub, or shop in the village – it felt like the community was fragmenting. She said: “In late 2010 a handful of us started exploring what the local appetite was for a community shop.

“We went door-to-door and discovered that overwhelmingly people wanted a shop, as much for the social opportunities as for shopping.”

The group collected 21 volunteers and launched the Saturday morning market and cafe at the village hall in April 2011.

They also launched a monthly lunch club, a table tennis club and bike mechanics workshop.

Talking Shop collected donations with the dream one day they could have their own permanent home in the village.

After three years they had £20,000 – enough “seed funding,” Ms Johnson said, to bid for larger grants. They bid for and won £100,000 from South Oxfordshire District Council, £75,000 from Waste Renewal Environmental and £9,000 from Oxfordshire County Council.

On January 10, the new, £500,000 Sandfordon- Thames Village Hall opened its doors to the waiting community.

With their own space, Talking Shop can hold events whenever they like.

Ms Johnson, 42, said: “We are talking about growing edibles for cooking; food for the cafe, but also providing lessons for people to learn how to grow their own food.”

The group plans to commission the kitchen in coming weeks, and hopes it will be ready for use by the summer.

One of the first villagers through the door at the new Talking Shop, Bernice Landels, who lives in Sandford, said “It’s great to know I can come here to meet a whole range of people, reach out and get involved.”

Visit talkingshopsandford.wordpress.com.