An coffee producer in London wants to help homeless people by turning them into baristas. Change Please has teamed up with The Big Issue and will pay its homeless workers the London living wage (£9.15/$13.80 an hour) to serve coffee from mobile carts around the city. “We have empowered homeless people with the skills, equipment and specialty beans they need to become fully-fledged baristas,” Change Please says on its website. “So they can serve coffee that tastes good, and does good too.”
“We were interested in supporting the onward journey The Big Issue already provides by creating new opportunities for the vendors,” says founder Cemal Ezel. “We really want to make sure this work makes a lasting difference in their lives because as a group they are trying to take big steps forward.” The scheme will begin with eight vendors in London, and will eventually extend to other cities in Britain. Every barista is fully-trained and provided housing, and after six months they will be moved into full-time employment with one of Change Please’s partners. If you’re in London and looking for a Change Please cart, locations can be found here.
