The Connection - cafe & barista training

Thank you so much for all of your continued support towards our crowdfunding project. You have all helped make a big difference in helping us to get closer to our goal! Due to the recent pandemic, we have had to make some small changes to our initial crowdfunding plans that we thought were important to share with you. As you may know, prior to lockdown, our plans included running the coffee kiosk in St Martin’s Courtyard alongside setting up a barista, hospitality and food preparation training programme for people experiencing homelessness. Training in food preparation will continue to go ahead this year, provided we reach our goal, and we will be making high-quality pastries and savoury goods to sell at the kiosk. The café will now be run by the talented people over at St Martin-in-the-Fields instead. By next year, we hope to take over the café full-time, expanding the programme we offer to include barista and hospitality training as well.

Time has flown by and we are now in the final week of our campaign! We are getting closer to our target with every day that passes and that is all down to your amazing support. To all of you who have liked, commented, shared or pledged to our project, we are incredibly grateful! Years of experience have shown us that people truly thrive when given opportunities to learn new skills, and this training scheme has the ability to empower many people facing homelessness, helping them get back into work. If you are considering pledging, we would appreciate your support now more than ever. Any donation you are able to give, big or small, will make a huge difference in helping us meet our goal. Thank you!

Thank you so much to all of you who have followed and donated to our project so far. Your support means so much and has pushed us that much closer to reaching our target! All of you have been incredibly generous, particularly during this tricky time, and we can’t thank you enough. The countdown has now begun: We have until the 30th June to reach our target otherwise we won’t get a penny. If you haven’t pledged yet and are able to do so, your support would amazing. Please also share with your family and friends! Opening a new community café in the heart of London would be a truly exciting event as we start to come out of lockdown and something incredibly positive to get involved in.