A local youth café will be serving up some spooky soup this half term, as well as hosting a number of community events.

Depot Youth Café in Cardigan will be hosting a Spooky Week this coming half term, with a number of events starting on Friday, October 27, including a free community soup afternoon on Tuesday, October 31 to encourage the local community to eat their pumpkins and reduce the number that end up in the bin this Halloween.

Depot will be hosting artist-led pumpkin carving workshops with young people to carve intricate designs on Saturday, October 28 from 12am-3pm. This will be open to both the Transition Morning participants (11-13 years old) and to those aged 14 - 25 from 1pm.

All of the waste from the pumpkins will be used to create pumpkin spice mocktails, decorated cupcakes, and, of course, the community soup, which will all be available on Hallowe’en day, October 31 outside Depot from 1pm onwards.

The staff of Area 43 that runs Depot would love the opportunity to talk to community members about the work they do at Depot, so all are welcome.

The leftover remnants will then be donated to a local community farm to be used as animal feed. Not one bit of pumpkin will end up in the bin.

Lisa Head, communications and engagement manager at Depot, said: "By running these types of events, showcasing the amount that can be done with a simple pumpkin, and teaching young people how to make pumpkin soup to serve the community, we really hope to inspire local residents to eat their pumpkins this year and help make this delicious food go further.

“You can get an average of six meals out of a pumpkin, and they make a great addition to a soup or curry and taste fantastic with a wide range of flavours, including ginger, chilli, and sage.

Mark Breen, senior creative partner at Hubbub, which is sponsoring the events, said: “For ten years, we’ve been inspiring the public to eat their pumpkins at Halloween. This year, we’re sharing fun ideas to decorate pumpkins instead of carving them, to help them keep for longer and give people more time to cook them.

“If everyone cooked and ate their Halloween pumpkins, they’d be saving a combined £26.7 million4 The Depot team invites all young people to get involved in their events during half-term week and is looking forward to greeting the community on Tuesday, October 31 for some delicious pumpkin soup.

Depot is an open access creative answer to the evolving demands of young people in modern society where they can come to hang out with friends, drink coffee, listen to music, or receive a specific intervention to deal with a crisis.

The open access encourages diversity, inclusion, and equity and an informal, fun culture with a strong sense of governance by young people.

Spooky week is one of a series of activities and events primarily determined and led by young people and enabled by professional support workers.