Coffee Ethic opens first high street café in Woolwich

UPDATE: November 2016 – Coffee Ethic closed it’s doors for the final time on the 4th November 2016. The cafe might be closed but do still look out for Coffee Ethic mobile vehicles! 

Coffee Ethic, Druglink’s Social Enterprise, is excited to have opened its first high street café in Anglesea Road, Woolwich, London.

Inside Coffee Ethic

Working in partnership with the Royal Borough of Greenwich and two charities, Bridge Mental Health and Blenheim CDP, the café will provide training and personal development opportunities to people in recovery from substance misuse through volunteering. The Coffee Ethic café will provide training from the basics of food hygiene to barista and customer service training with the aim of improving the confidence, the well-being and skill sets of those involved. The café will also invite members of the community who would just like to try a different volunteering experience.

The café offers freshly ground coffee, soft drinks, light lunches and snacks and can also cater for meetings and events.

Jon Blower, one of the café’s first customers gave a rave review of his Coffee Ethic experience:

“Having seen Coffee Ethic’s work featured on TV a while ago I’ve been eagerly awaiting the opening in Woolwich. I decided to sample the espresso at Coffee Ethic on my way to work last week and wasn’t disappointed. It’s the best espresso in Woolwich town centre by a country mile. The coffee & pastry offer was a bonus. Very decent pains-au-chocolate and it’s nice knowing my rapacious caffeine habit might contribute to helping others recover from less benevolent addictions.”

The space will also be for community and the project plans to link with community groups and other charities to provide venues for local events and meetings as well as training and advice opportunities for those in recovery.

As well as the café, Coffee Ethic runs three “carts” in Hertfordshire council offices, Dacorum, St Albans and Hertsmere. In the past year has added to coffee vehicles, a Citroen H Van and from early June, the baby of the Coffee Ethic family, the tuk tuk:

As with the café, the carts and mobile vehicles are run by volunteers being provided with coffee shop/ cart training alongside paid Baristas who have come through the training programme into paid employment. The van and tuk tuk will be at a variety of events in 2016 with the biggest event for the Citroen H Van being Reading Festival in August.

Check out this short video to learn more about Coffee Ethic: 

Druglink, the charity who runs Coffee Ethic was set up to provide a pathway of prevention, recovery and reintegration around substance misuse. Coffee Ethic plays a big part in reintegration, providing skills and experience which may prove valuable to people looking for the move back into paid for employment. Any surplus from Coffee Ethic is reinvested in the Charity and its services.

Click here to read about more cafes that do good.