Central Hall Westminster, together with its onsite caterers Kudos, today announces the launch of its new Change Please coffee kiosk designed to transform the lives of people experiencing homelessness.
The Change Please coffee station in the venue’s popular Wesley’s Café was opened in a ribbon-cutting ceremony which took place on Wednesday 3rd July, attended by representatives from each organisation.
Revenue from the Change Please coffee station goes to help support the 4,000 homeless people sleeping rough in London every night with 100% of the profits going towards reducing homelessness in the UK. Through the innovative scheme, the organisation provides an opportunity for homeless people to progress to a positive future by providing in-house barista training, a living wage job and support into future long-term employment training to become coffee baristas.
The company has already helped 86 homeless people in this way since it began in 2015 and it is hoped that the new kiosk at Central Hall Westminster will provide further opportunity for more to join as baristas in the future.
The new coffee station replaces Central Hall Westminster’s existing one in Wesley’s Café, which itself underwent a total rebrand in September 2018. The fresh new look complements the rebranded café while offering award-winning coffee which makes a huge difference to the lives of homeless people living in the capital city. The organisation is also a sustainable enterprise, using fully biodegradable coffee cups, is plastic free and coffee is Rainforest Alliance Certified. Coffee grounds are recycled to make biofuel or eco-friendly cosmetic products. Farms meet comprehensive environmental, social and economically sustainable standards.
The social enterprise, Change Please, founded by entrepreneur Cemal Ezel, was named as Richard Branson’s Start-up of the Year in 2018. Every 562 cups (or 1052 shots) of coffee sold at Central Hall will cover the training costs of a Change Please beneficiary for one day.
Change Please Founder, Cemal Ezel, comments: “We are on a mission to become the fourth largest coffee chain the UK so we are delighted to be partnering with Central Hall Westminster and Kudos to provide a new kiosk which will help more homeless people in London. The multi-billion-pound coffee industry has the power to change lives through the supply chain, from people sleeping rough in the UK to the hard- working farmers in the tropics where the processing begins.”
Matthew Herter, Chief Executive of Kudos, adds: “We are thrilled to have introduced Change Please to our partner, Central Hall Westminster and implemented it in Wesley’s Café. Kudos continues to be committed to social causes around the country and Change Please is a very tangible way for us to support an organisation that does an incredible job of helping people get back into work.”
