Angela Ireland
of Milk Cafe

Can you tell us briefly about your background and what led to the opening of Milk?

I studied English literature at Glasgow University and whilst there I volunteered with a couple of different charities, more to make friends than anything else. In my final year we did an international development project, I went to Nepal and worked with lots of NGO’s. This opened my eyes to thinking that the ‘them and us’ charity model has some issues. I know it’s necessary, but it’s like a helping hand instead of working in tandem with people.

When I graduated I met Gabby working in a restaurant, we went to Mexico, taught English and travelled about trying to decide what to do when we came home. Gabby had wanted to open a cafe for years but it had to be something that had an extra level to it, to put all the money we made back into community projects. When we came back to Glasgow we ended up volunteering with Bridges Programmes which is a mentoring buddy system for refugees and asylum seekers, it opened our eyes specifically to the lack of provisions for women in that situation. This helped us to hone the idea and set our social aims so we set up a company. Last year we opened our cafe.

What have been the main hurdles thus far and what do you think the biggest challenges are?

We set the company up a year before we found our premises. That year was the hardest because we had never owned a cafe before and everyone was giving us their advice about what was the most important factor, whether it was location or size etc.

It took us a full twelve months from registering the business with Companies House to finding premises. It was really hard because we were both working full time plus creating the business plans and networking and trying to meet people. We had a lot of help from a friend who is a solicitor. I would phone him every second day saying ‘we’ve looked at this place, do you know this landlord?’ and because he was working in commercial property in Glasgow at the time he was able to help.

You have a picture of the ideal place in your head and there was a property round the corner with double fronted glass, it was beautiful. We were determined to have it but it’s purpose was as an office building before so it had nothing in it. We didn’t know if it was a good idea but thought, it’ll be fine, we’ll just take furniture from our houses and make it work. In the end it fell through, there were tears and tantrums and we almost gave up. But then our current cafe came on the market. I ended up having a face to face conversation with the owner, explained what we wanted to do and she was really happy. It was already a community space before so she was really pleased that it would remain that way. So actually we were very lucky, we both live around the corner so we don’t have far to go. We are actually part of the community that we’re working with which makes a huge difference.

What are your plans going forward?

We’re ready to expand which is really scary because this has been quite safe. It’s a small space so even if there are two tables in, it’s still quite a nice atmosphere. Also, we’ve got loads of volunteers because we’ve built a community around it. The limitation is that we can’t physically fit any more in on a busy Saturday or Sunday. We’re looking into catering and then possibly into starting a hostel.

The challenges going forward are, I guess, letting go and taking on other members of staff because the dynamic will change. Up until now it’s just been Gabby and I in charge, so trusting other people to come in and fully take control of the business will be hard. We’re quite relaxed about letting people come in and smash about in the kitchen and bake cakes, but now I guess we’re actually going to have to have a ‘board’!

What have been the highlights?

It is genuinely the people we’ve met, we’ve made such great connections with not only volunteers but regular customers. There’s a lad who lives round the corner who comes in for a coffee every morning. We shut over Christmas for a week and he and his friend came in and painted and decorated the place. We don’t take on male volunteers, we have a female focus, so they were like ‘look, this is all we can donate, let us do it’. It was really nice, we are genuinely touched by stuff like that.

Also, people who have seen us on Facebook, customers that come in off the street with bags of teapots and cutlery and stuff. The highlight is the involvement we’ve had from everybody else.