Café Says ‘Please Consider’ To Anyone In City Centre

The café shared an urgent plea after a difficult day, reports the Liverpool Echo.

A city centre coffee shop has made an urgent appeal to people in Liverpool. Paper Cup Coffee supports homeless people in the city as part of the wider Paper Cup Project.

The café, located in Queen Square in Liverpool City Centre, runs a “pay it forward” scheme for customers to donate food and drink for rough sleepers. As well as providing hot food and drinks, the café offers people who have been living on the streets the opportunity to work and potentially boost their chances of finding long-term employment.

The café has now made an emotional plea to customers as it revealed they are struggling to get people through the door. In a post on its X/Twitter account yesterday, Paper Cup said: “Another day of less than £100 sales…if you are in town and buying coffee, please consider us instead of the big chains. Our coffee is delicious and we use local suppliers, roasted here in Liverpool.”

Many people in the replies to the post promised to visit the café. Another offered to build a website for the business. The project was founded by Michelle Langan in 2019, who wanted to address the rising number of rough sleepers in the city. Michelle and other volunteers would give out free food, clothes and drinks to homeless people in Liverpool and direct them to services which could help them further.

In February 2022, she took the next step by opening the café. Speaking about her work previously, she said: “In February 2022 we opened Paper Cup Coffee in Liverpool city centre. It is a place where people who are homeless can come on a ‘pay it forward system’, so customers can pay for a homeless person to have a free hot drink or food.”

“They have dignity and choices, they can pick whatever they want off the menu and the only difference is that they don’t pay for it. The feedback we’ve had from our homeless customers is that it’s one of the only places they feel like a ‘normal’ person.”