Coffee with a Cause

‘Coffee shops with a conscience’ are the latest movement hooking in our coffee lovers. Contributing to a charitable community within our cities, high streets and towns, I for one, am a huge fan. As the UK’s capital city, London is home to 3 of the coffee shops I urge you to visit this weekend. Chatter, observe or relax over a coffee whilst supporting a greater cause.

Paper & Cup

Based close to Shoreditch high street, Paper & Cup are much more than a cup of coffee and a delicious slice of cake.

As a social enterprise supported by the SCT, a charity who support the homeless and those recovering from addiction, Paper & Cup provide an encouraging working environment and offer training opportunities to become a barista.

Partnered with Pret A Manger, some have the chance to move on to an award-winning scheme as an apprentice, with a guaranteed full-time job at the end.

Having won the innovation award in September at the Lunch Business Grab & Go Awards, the coffee house remains described as an ‘‘Imaginative concept with a social enterprise’’ by the judges.

For more details for their delicious menu, opening times and great charity work head over to their website at http://www.paperandcup.co.uk/about-us

Central Street Cafe

A glassed front cafe within the heart of Finsbury, St Luke’s Parochial Trust’s community cafe is most definitely on our checklist of Cafe’s contributing to a greater cause.

The trust state that their ‘charitable aim is to improve the conditions of life for the people living in our area of benefit.’ As well as the trust’s frequent fundraising and volunteering opportunities, the Central Street Cafe are responsible for funding delicious, healthy and high-quality meals that feed hundreds of the elderly in Islington each year through directing all of their profits to the cause.

So head over to their welcoming door from 9 am to smell the fresh aromatic smell of a ‘coffee with a cause.’  For further details on their menu and great work, head over to http://www.centralstreetcafe.london/

Good Hope Cafe

Good Hope is a chain of three cafes found within London which were opened by the charity ‘For Jimmy’.

Jimmy Mizen was a sixteen-year-old schoolboy from Lewisham, south east London who lost his life in an awful attack in a bakery in 2008.

 With belief that the government and police can not tackle this alone, The charity was launched in order to tackle issues of violence, confrontation and anger within young people and believes this involves ‘’early intervention, education and engagement with young people and their communities.’’

The cafes were initially opened to raise money for the charity who offer Safe Haven Programme’s involving six half-day workshops, safety conferences, talks for change made by Jimmy’s parents Barry and his wife, Margaret Mizen and much more. As well as the charity’s great work aiming to inspire young people to make their communities safer, the Cafes now offer training opportunities and work experience to young people. Partnered with Drumbeat School and ASD services, the cafes are able to provide a personalised and supportive environment for young people with Autism to gain experience in a workplace and to acquire a set of important skills.

Along with great charity work, they also offer a delicious menu, so if you’re in London this weekend, I urge you to visit one of their cafe’s for a brew, a bite to eat and to support a greater cause.

To check out the locations of their cafe’s or for more information on their charity, head over to their website http://forjimmy.org/