anniversary

Words by Ed King

On Thursday 29 January, Oikos Café opens its doors for its first free Community Meal of 2026 – cooked and served by volunteers from Oikos Church.

Located at 58 Erdington High Street, opposite The Swan and near the Village Green, Oikos Café serves meals, snacks, and non-alcoholic drinks from 9am to 4pm from Mondays to Saturday.

Held on the third Thursday of every month, the free Community Meal invites people in from 5pm until 6:30pm – with the first event taking place on Thursday 29 January.

Community Meal at Oikos Cafe and Church on Erdington High Street / Photograph by Yellow Mustard Photography

Delivered as part of Oikos Church’s ministry – using their time and resources to reach out to the local community and build positive relationships – the Community Meal is a friendly and popular event that brings people together from all over Erdington

Local families and individuals of all ages are invited to drop in at any point for a healthy hot meal and a chance to sit and chat in the café.

One Erdington local told: “Oikos do a great job with their Community Meal, it’s a lovely atmosphere and the food is always a hearty homecooked meal. There’s no judgement or pressure and it’s a really mixed crowd of all ages and stages.”

They added: “I love going, and even though I go on my own I’ve started to make friends from some of the regular faces you see there. It’s a truly special event.”

Staff and volunteers serving inside Oikos Cafe on Erdington High Street / Photograph by Yellow Mustard Photography

Oikos Café and Church are a longstanding and cherished part of the High Street community, having opened their doors 10 and 15 years ago respectively.

To celebrate the double anniversary, Oikos will be hosting a special Fun Day community event on Saturday 28 February – held outside their venue on Erdington High Street.

Erdington Business Improvement District (BID) will be supporting the Oikos anniversary events as part of their ongoing LOVE YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY campaign, celebrating all the positive aspects and community of Erdington Town Centre.

Outside of Oikos Cafe and Church on Erdington High Street / Photograph by Yellow Mustard Photography

A spokesperson for Erdington BID told: “If anyone ever asks me to sum up the community spirit in Erdington, I tell them about the Oikos Community Meal – it’s a really special event, delivered from a place of absolute love and goodwill.

“It also tastes great and is genuinely a lot of fun.”

They added: “Oikos Church and Café are fundamental part of Erdington Town Centre and amazingly supportive of our local community – they do so much for so many, we are truly blessed to have them on our High Street.

“It is with great pleasure and friendship that we will join them at their upcoming anniversaries on the High Street – we hope everyone else will come along on Saturday 28 February and join in the celebrations too.”

For more on Oikos Café visit www.oikoscafe.co.uk

Words by Simon Wilson, Chief Executive Officer – The Pioneer Group & Compass Support

The Pioneer Group CEO Simon Wilson / Pic supplied by The Pioneer Group

It’s hard to believe that it has been five years since the Covid pandemic started and cast a dark shadow over so many lives.

As a housing association our world stopped and changed forever as the pandemic struck. As a business we had to adapt to working and providing services remotely for the first time and of course as events unfolded stepped up alongside the whole community on Castle Vale to help those in need.

We helped coordinate a Covid Taskforce alongside the likes of Spitfire Services, church groups, the schools and local organisations all of which coordinated a huge range of provision from medication and food deliveries to welfare calls.

Much of the effort relied on volunteers and goodwill. Many colleagues couldn’t work from home and carried on with vital services in the community.

In many ways it showed something about Castle Vale I have always known. When times are tough and the community faces a challenge it will respond, it will come together and it won’t be done to, it will stand up for itself.

It’s easy to forget with the passage of time just how scary those days where and sadly too many families they would lose loved ones – they will never forget and nor should we.

If you follow the news this can also be seen as quite a scary time with global political and economic uncertainty and closer to home we remain conscious of the real world impact of cost of living crisis and fragile state of many public services.

It feels timely and important to reflect on what we can achieve as a community alongside remembering those we lost.

For more on The Pioneer Group visit www.pioneergroup.org.uk and for more on Compass Support visit www.compass-support.org.uk

The Pioneer Group and Compass Support are key partners in the Erdington Local COMMUNITY ANCHORS programme – supporting independent local and community journalism.

Tag: anniversary

NEWS: First free Community Meal of 2026 at Oikos Café on Thursday 29 January – 5:30pm to 6:30pm