Partnerships
Ikigai
What started as a chat over coffee and cakes has led to an enduring partnership, bringing new friends together with lovely food.
About this partnership
Ikigai Soul Food Café, founded by Sara Lam, can be found at Spaces Lochrin Square, home to Rowan Alba’s Head Office. Ikigai has a focus on inner health and wellbeing through food. From the time Sara met our CARDS team she wanted to support our volunteers by providing us with food for our volunteer supervision sessions.
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As our partnership grew, Sara allowed us to use her café on a Saturday morning once a month as an informal meeting space for our service users, providing them with a quiet and pleasant space to be together. These meetings of up to 20 people have given them a reason to get up and out of bed in the morning, encouraged them to go out for a walk and brief trip outside once the café session is over. Friends have been made, regular meet ups have taken place, outings planned and brought together a small community of people who were once scared to go out the house and are now a vibrant, cheerful hopeful meet up group. They have even decided to take on a local allotment space. This started with Sara.
Ikigai’s support included a point of sale promotion
“I got the chance to visit the residents at one of the temporary accommodation houses and share food with them. It was honestly a humbling experience. Sometimes it’s just down to luck or where we happen to be born that shapes our paths in life.”
Sara Lam, Ikigai Owner
Sara on meeting Rowan Alba
I met the Rowan Alba CARDS team at Spaces during what I now call my mid-life crisis — when I left my corporate job to start Ikigai Soul Food Café.
What really stuck with me were the everyday chats with Tracey, Rynagh, Kirsten and the rest of the team. Just simple things — encouragement, sharing personal stories, vulnerabilities, being genuinely open and kind. It might not sound like much, but it meant a lot. The daily connections gave real meaning to what I was doing, in a way I hadn’t felt before in any job. It is really about the simple things in life.
I’ve always loved cooking and feeding people, and I got the chance to visit the residents at one of the temporary accommodation houses and share food with them. It was honestly a humbling experience. Sometimes it’s just down to luck or where we happen to be born that shapes our paths in life.
I’m so grateful for the connection and hope I could do more. Rowan Alba is such a brilliant charity, and I feel lucky to have crossed paths with them.
Sara Lam
Owner and Founder of Ikigai Soul Food Café
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