2023-12-09 19:30:49
Altenburg. Some cakes are already finished, the base for the next two trays is ready. Apple pie is on the program. That’s why at nine o’clock in the morning it’s time to peel apples in the Horizonte kitchen.
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Only a few clients of the psychosocial Diakoniezentrum, a facility for people with psychiatric experience and addiction disorders from the Altenburger Land, will be able to enjoy the finished cake in the café themselves: “Most of them have to take their cake home with them and eat it there,” says Silvia Göhler . “That’s a shame, because many of those affected live alone and could benefit from the community in the café – especially in moments when being alone is difficult.” That wasn’t always the case. But there is no other way at the moment.
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Three women for the café: female employees are also affected
Because Silvia Göhler is the only permanent employee at the café. Your approximately 43 hours a month, divided into three days a week, are no longer enough – especially after the drop in volunteers due to the corona pandemic – to open the café regularly and to spontaneous customers. All the café can do now: hot and cold drinks until 2 p.m. And lunch.
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But Silvia Göhler is not completely alone in the kitchen today. She is supported by Nicole Bimmler and Elisabeth Naundorf. All three women are affected by illnesses or traumatic experiences. By working in a café, they find their way back into a regular (working) everyday life without the pressure of the private sector. They all work for little money – or completely on a voluntary basis.
A few more helping hands
As every Thursday morning, Horizonte employee and café manager Nina-Patricia Haarfeldt is there to provide active support. And only today the now four women in the white aprons have a few more helping hands: mine.
At least in theory. Because it quickly becomes clear: the team is well-coordinated, so my support will remain moral. Nevertheless, I quickly learn first-hand why Horizonte urgently needs a new kitchen and more people.
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Broken cupboards, aging appliances and sparse equipment: the kitchen at the Horizonte Café has seen its best days.
© Source: Mario Jahn
Despite limited capacity: Café bakes cookies for everyone
At nine in the morning everything is still running like clockwork. Small apples gradually become peelless pieces and go into a water bath. Before they land on the two cake trays, Silvia Göhler heats up the two small ovens. “We baked the remaining cakes in the last few days,” she says. “Little by little.” On the one hand, because there are only two trays, and on the other hand, because only one portion fits into the oven at a time. A tight affair for the many orders that the café employees regularly have on their list.
In addition, Christmas preparations are now starting: To create the right atmosphere at the Horizonte winter markets and Advent evenings, the café is busy baking Christmas cookies for everyone. This is one of the reasons why the preparation of regular lunches has to be outsourced to the daycare kitchens on the first floor. “It would be nice if we could do it here again soon with more staff and a more functional kitchen,” says Silvia Göhler. As she speaks, she rushes from one corner to the other, washing up, pushing cakes into rickety ovens, wiping peeling countertops.
Silvia Göhler is the only permanent employee at Café Horizonte. But she’s not the only one who wants a new kitchen from donations from LVZ readers – and another colleague.
© Source: Mario Jahn
Cheap food: Many guests don’t have the money for more
Then it’s half past ten – the first guests are slowly arriving. The three women serve café, tea and juice and do the billing. The drinks usually don’t cost more than one euro. “The people who come to Horizonte also do so because they often don’t have the necessary change for food at home or elsewhere,” explains Nicole Bimmler as she prepares a hot cup of tea and then carries it to one of the tables in the café room next door . Some sit there alone, others in small groups. They talk, play cards, watch others.
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Nicole Bimmler asks when she re-enters the kitchen whether I would like to drink something too. You’re welcome, coffee please. “It only comes out of the machine lukewarm,” she apologizes, laughing, even before I have the desired drink in my hands. “The machine has actually never been good,” she says. “And now she’s old too.”
Improvisation is on the agenda
You just lean against the counter together for a moment, enjoy the drink, which is actually rather lukewarm, then we move on: half past twelve, high time for the cookies – because lunch should be on the table in 30 minutes.
It’s a new recipe that café manager Haarfeldt put on the serving trolley to bake today. Elisabeth Naundorf takes care of it: At first she was a little hesitant about the new task, but in the end the dough for the almond bread was made quickly and easily. I can also try my hand at the dough. But then we still face a problem: the dough has to rest in the refrigerator for two days – and there are not enough storage boxes in the kitchen, the refrigerators in the room are filled to the brim.
Short briefing among the women. What to do? They end up looking for plastic boxes all over the house and stacking them full to the brim in refrigerators in the storage room. Every day we have to improvise in the old, sparsely equipped kitchen, the employees assure me and shrug their shoulders in resignation. As part of the “A Light in Advent” campaign, LVZ readers can now donate for new equipment and the necessary renovation of the kitchen.
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Climb the stairs to the last
As soon as the cookie problem is solved, the text continues: As every day, lunch is served at 12 p.m. for those affected and those in other need. Since the food could not be prepared directly on the ground floor, Silvia Göhler, Nicole Bimmler and Elisabeth Naundorf now have to collect the individual portions from the first floor.
Up the spiral staircase with empty hands and back down with several plates in hand. To the guests’ tables – and back upstairs to get supplies. Until the last guest has been taken care of. Only then do the café employees sit down for their well-deserved lunch. Because I really can’t help anymore, I take off the white apron.
Café manager Nina-Patricia Haarfeldt shows where clients and other affected people meet for lunch. She would like the room to remain open for coffee and cake in the future.
© Source: Mario Jahn
As comfortable as possible
The mini-jobber and her mostly volunteer helpers, on the other hand, will clean up after dinner until around 2 p.m., take orders, make tea and make those affected as comfortable as possible in the psychosocial center. Then they also take off their aprons and have to close their café.
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In the long term, there will be a lack of human resources for longer and regular opening hours. This is one of the reasons why the café employees and all their guests hope for numerous donations from LVZ readers. If enough money comes together, in addition to the new kitchen, there will also be a second mini-job position for the café in order to be able to operate the service better.
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Until then, Horizonte clients have to continue to hold their coffee party in their own four walls – and Silvia Göhler, Nicole Bimmler and Elisabeth Naundorf have to put up the chairs at 2 p.m.
LVZ
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