Wake Up And Smell The Coffee!

The multibillion-pound coffee industry has the power to change lives all along the supply chain, from people sleeping rough in the UK to farmers in the tropics, says a report in The Independent.

For the past two years, a not-for-profit company called Change Please has employed homeless people as baristas to sell fresh coffee across London. Now, its coffee is available in more than 300 Sainsbury’s stores across the country. The launch of Change Please altered the way thousands of people across London looked at their everyday cup of coffee. Like The Big Issue, it offered homeless men and women a ‘hand up, not a hand out’ and the opportunity to work their way out of poverty.

This landmark expansion, which sees the premium, speciality-graded coffee available in over 375 stores nationwide, follows the success of the Change Please mobile coffee carts that, in under two years, have grown from one cart in Covent Garden to 15 sites across London.

While the large coffee chains have recently trumpeted their plans to tackle the scourge of plastic waste, Change Please already does a lot more to make a positive impact. For a start, all of its cups are 100 per cent recyclable. Its beans also come from farms that support local communities. One supplier in Peru helps victims of domestic abuse, while another in Tanzania supports people injured by landmines.

When the beans get to the UK, people who have been sleeping on the streets roast them and are also trained as baristas to work at the company’s 17 locations. Change Please pays the London Living Wage, currently £10.20 per hour, and provides help with opening bank accounts, housing, therapy and assistance with onward employment. All profits are put back into helping to reduce homelessness.

“We want to be the fourth-biggest coffee chain in the UK. We’re not holding back,” says founder Cemal Ezel, a Londoner who worked in the City before becoming disillusioned with what he was doing and launching Change Please. Interest from big companies in Change Please is also rocketing. Ezel plans to open 22 new sites in the UK this year. Sainsbury’s started stocking Change Please coffee in October, Ocado has just signed a similar deal and more big partnerships are in the pipeline, Ezel says. The company also serves its coffee in Bank of New York and UBS offices. “So far, every door we’ve pushed on has opened,” says Ezel.

“If those companies can add coffee into their supply chain which doesn’t cost any more, tastes better and is lifting people off the streets, it’s a no-brainer.”