The Perfect Place To Grow training café and kitchen to give 18-24 year olds a path into employment is leaving its home at the TKE Studios in Margate.
The café and kitchen opened at the former Edwardian morgue building within Tracey Emin’s TKE Studio site in Victoria Road/Dane Road in October 2023.
The venture is headed by Lee Coad, of seafood restaurants Angela’s and Dory’s, with Harry Ryder from Bottega Caruso and Thanet youth worker Anistasia James.
Training gives young people experience on-site but also at farms, dairies, fishing boats and other parts of the supplier chain.
The training scheme will continue at the trio’s kitchen garden site in Quex estates and then at a new site once this has been secured.
‘Pastures new’
A statement from The Perfect Place To Grow says: “After three wonderful years we are leaving the training kitchen & cafe space at TKE Studios.
“We are extremely grateful to Tracey Emin and her team for getting us up and running when no one else would take a chance on us. Without this gift of the old morgue, we would never have been able to change the futures of so many young people in Thanet.
“However, it is time for pastures new.
“During our time at TKE Studios we were very fortunate to be able to take part in some incredible events and had opportunities presented to us that we are deeply grateful for – so to Dame Tracey and all of her wonderful team we say, thank you, thank you, thank you.
“We are unsure what that the future looks like for The Perfect Place to Grow at the present time but we do know that this is not the end. It has been, at times, hard for both the team and the trainees, but we know every young person who came through those doors left in a better place than when they started. We also know that the young people in Thanet need our support more than ever.
“We have assessed what we do, and how we do it. We know we are great at some things and need to work at others. However, we are as committed to changing the futures of young people in Thanet as we were at the start of this project nearly five years ago and our work with the trainees will continue unabated.
“It does, however, mean that we are looking for a new site and are open to ideas and options going forward, however crazy they may seem. Please do get in touch if you have an idea!
“We also have lots of events, fundraisers and parties planned for the next couple of months until we leave the site full time so please look out for those.
“The future is full of possibilities and we intend to embrace them head-on, and we look forward to an exciting new direction.”
Continued work
Lee, who first opened Angela’s in 2017 with Dory’s following two years later, stressed that training will continue despite the impending move out of TKE.
He added: “We are continuing our work supporting young people into employment and still have our kitchen garden site in Quex estates.”
Earlier this year, The Perfect Place to Grow received Nourish Grant Funding through Thanet council, to allow it to scale up its training work by using the EKC Innovation Kitchen at Broadstairs College.
The scheme runs an induction period of eight weeks which is followed by trainees receiving the Real Living Wage as they work.
Thanet youth unemployment
The youth unemployment rate in Thanet peaked at 12,2% in August. This equates to 1040 young people aged 18 to 24.
This is a rise from 12% in July and 11.4% in June – equating to 1,005 young people- which had been a drop from 11,7% in May.
Thanet has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the South East. The next highest is Hastings with a rate of just over 10%.
In Ashford the rate is 6.6%, Canterbury 3.8%, Dover 7.5%, Folkestone and Hythe 7.8% and Swale 6.9%.
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