Former Homeless People Turned Catering Entrepreneurs
In London, a coffee company staffed by homeless people is now launching kiosks at tube stations, whilst one former homeless woman turned her life around and opened a café.
Founded in 2015, Change Please is a social enterprise that trains homeless people to become baristas at its carts, eventually supporting them into the workplace in similar roles. One worker, Adan Abobaker, helped launch the kiosk at Goodge Street station. He had previously slept rough for 12 years.
He told the Evening Standard: “I don’t think I would have survived much longer. It basically saved my life.”
Mr Abobaker started working for the company 18 months ago after being introduced to its founder, Cemal Ezel, following more than a decade of rough sleeping around Borough Market. “He got my number,” Mr Abobaker recalled, “we met up, and I got a job.”
He added: “Within a few days I was in a hostel. I was wearing clean clothes. I was clean-shaven. I was able to have a shower. I had food in my stomach. I am now on the waiting list for a council flat. It has given me my dignity back. I can communicate with people on a social level. I have a normal life again.”
In a similar vein, the Mirror reported about how a woman revealed her incredible transformation from homeless binge drinker to successful cafe owner. Caz Chapman is unrecognisable from the person she once was downing cheap cider to ‘block out the pain’ of sleeping rough on the streets.
The 31-year-old spent four years caught in a downward spiral – but finally decided enough was enough when schoolmates began to start families and buy their own homes – a life she desperately craved.
Her turning point finally came when she got a job at the cafe she now owns in her hometown of Loughborough, Leicestershire. “I feel like I have made it now. I can’t believe the girl who was drinking Frosty Jack’s from the bottle on the streets was once me,” she said. Her café now has a ‘pay it forward’ board where customers can buy items of food and drink for homeless rough sleepers.
She added: “I don’t forget my past and allow homeless people to come in for food and regularly collect clothes to donate. It was imperative for me to make a ‘pay it forward’ board – this allows customers to buy a food item for a homeless person who walks in. Owning the café is a dream come true.”
