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Residents have been involved in conversations about what type of caterer could take up the now-empty cafe space at La Nouvelle Maraitaine.
A number of businesses have tried to make a go of it there since the extra care living facility opened a decade ago.
There is also a history of past catering providers closing without notice, with some even taken to court over non payment of debts.
The most recent leaseholder was Mim's Kitchen - part of a wider catering business which also runs the kiosk at Cobo and has mobile catering facilities, which all continue to operate as usual. This business closed on New Year's Eve and has not reopened.
Before that, Mama's Little Bakery was based there - with cakes and sweet treats alongside a savoury menu. The owner of that business relocated to the UK with her family. This business announced its closure in advance with the family opening a new cafe where they now live in England.
Pictured: La Nouvelle Maraitaine in the Vale.
La Nouvelle Maraitaine is not unique in offering a business opportunity within an extra care housing facility in the island or further afield.
The GHA says many extra care schemes provide additional facilities to "generate a sense of community, and bring people together".
At La Nouvelle Maraitaine that includes a hairdressers, as well as the communal lounge and the cafe. Le Grand Courtil in St Martin's also offers a cafe, communal lounge, hairdressing facilities and more.
The GHA uses volunteers and other service providers to run these communal spaces and activities, along with groups run by the residents themselves.
The nature of the facilities mean that a business is used to run the cafe facilities through a lease arrangement enabling the service provider to use the catering equipment provided while offering a menu for residents and outside guests.
"There is a nominal rent for the space, as well as running costs," said the GHA. "Because it’s a separate commercial space, any subsidy from us would mean that all of our tenants would be paying, from their rent and service charges, to support a profit-making business – and we are a not-for-profit organisation."
Pictured: La Nouvelle Maraitaine is home to hundreds of people who for a variety of reasons need care and support to enable them to live independently.
With the cafe currently closed after Mim's Kitchen shut at the end of 2023, the GHA said it "talked with HSC immediately to find out which residents relied on the café and would therefore need some support.
"We know that some residents need a bit more support than others, and needs change over time, so arrangements have already been put in place for the very small number of people who needed it. Issues around continuity for that small number of people in the short term were addressed straight away."
Long term plans are also being formed for a replacement catering business to take on the lease with residents being involved in those talks too. Those talks had already started before Mim's Kitchen closed.
"We’ve had feedback from the residents as to what they’d like to see – a session with us last summer, and more recently a meeting with the cafe operator through the Residents’ Association, so we’re using that information now, along with the operators feedback, to see how we can re-shape the service and/or provision to fit," explained the GHA.
"The size of the kitchen and range of equipment may not suit many operators, and running costs, like electricity, and food costs have gone up - so we’re thinking about how we can make it a more attractive and long-lasting proposition for the benefit of the residents."
Pictured: Mim's Kitchen is now closed, with the empty cafe seen through the window on Friday 5 January, 2024.
While the GHA owns and manages La Nouvelle Maraitaine, the extra care support provider is Health and Social Care.
Following the closure of Mim's Kitchen at the very end of 2023, the GHA has explained that the principle behind Extra Care living is that with a small amount of support hours provided by HSC, people are able to live independent lives.
La Nouvelle Maritaine is "not a care home, or residential home, where residents rely on meals being provided - in Extra Care, residents’ homes are completely self-contained to maintain the principle of independent living with some support, so everybody has a full kitchen in their own property".
This means that the cafe facility is additional to the individual kitchens each resident has in their own home.
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