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By Marielle Messing
KIMBERTON — Camphill Village Kimberton Hills celebrated the grand reopening of their Camphill Café on Sunday with a live concert by Ensemble Casa de Venezuela.
The original Camphill Café closed about a year ago after the Chester County Board of Health declared that the café’s non-industrial kitchen was too small for the cramped, 30-person capacity cafeteria, according to café manager Erin Graver. Rather than just revamping the kitchen, Camphill directors moved the café to a completely different building.
“We said, ‘Let’s take this opportunity to pursue our commitment to sustainable building,’” said Bernadette Kovaleski, the director of Development and Public Relations at Camphill Village. They converted a former garage into the new café using recycled materials and eco-friendly technology. For example, recycled rubber tires line the bathroom floors, while geothermal pipes beneath the ground heat and cool the building. Solatubes skylights offer maximum sunlight indoors and Silestone quartz countertops provide antimicrobial protection and improve air quality in the kitchen. Camphill’s off-beat architect Joan Allen worked with Carnevale Eustis Architects, Inc., on the design and construction of these and other sustainable elements.
In addition to the building’s new green structure, the majority of the food served inside is organic and local, said Graver, including vegetables from the on-site Sankanac CSA, a garden of seasonal vegetables, herbs, flowers and livestock that serves up to 200 shares per season (February to November) according to their Web site, Camphillkimberton.org. The café also uses and sells their famous raw cow’s milk, which shoppers can always find at Kimberton Whole Foods, the exclusive sponsors of the café’s reopening reception.
Although the new café opened for business in January, the concert and reception came just weeks after the awning, landscaping and other finishing touches were completed in September. The $450,000 renovations were made possible by a score of donors, including a generous $105,000 grant by the Chester County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“We’re big arts and culture advocates,” said Kovaleski. She explained that Camphill Village, which has been running since 1972, often holds concerts and events for the public. Additionally, many of Camphill Village’s residents, adults with developmental disabilities such as Down syndrome and autism, sell their basketry and pottery in Camphill’s craft shop. These vocations, as well as working in the café, bakery and on Camphill Village’s dairy farm, provide valuable life experiences for these community members.
Camphill Village is one of a hundred Camphill campuses around the world. When the organization started in 1940, it was founded on “accepting of the whole person, mind, body and spirit,” said Kovaleski. Villagers, she explained, “are encouraged to make their own decisions and live independently.”
Graver noted that working in the cafée teaches villagers how to handle money and interact with customers. It’s also a freeing experience for villager customers. “When they go outside [of Camphill Village], someone has to drive them out. They can walk here and use their own money. It’s a nice taste of independence for them.”
To thank the many donors and those who worked hard to reconstruct the café, Camphill Village held a performance by Casa de Venezuela, a non-profit group dedicated to bringing Venezuelan culture and traditions to the Delaware Valley. The concert was held at 2 p.m. in Rose Hall, where the eight-piece ensemble gave a musical tour of the Venezuelan countryside including waltzes, meringue and calypso music. About a hundred people including villagers, volunteers and outside locals came to the concert, and by the end most were dancing along to the rhythmic performances.
“You could see people were really enjoying the music. They got up and danced and it was from the heart,” said Emilio Buitrago, the president of Casa de Venezuela. The Ensemble played in Rose Hall once before in 2007 and looks forward to future performances.
Filed under: Newspaper articles | Tagged: The Phoenix
