One Coffee at a Time

Cafesmart Is Back To Make a Difference – One Coffee at a Time

This August, hitting up your local cafe can mean a lot more than just buying another flat white. For the past 11 years, Cafesmart has helped funnel Australia’s love for coffee into a good cause. Similar to its restaurant counterpart Dinesmart, Cafesmart is an initiative of charity StreetSmart that helps hospitality venues such as cafe and roaster Industry Beans – and its coffee-loving patrons – raise money to fight homelessness.

“Cafesmart is such an important cause,” says Industry Beans co-founder Steven Simmons. “Given that coffee is such a daily habit for so many people, contributing a dollar from a coffee and promoting the important cause of homelessness is something that sits really well with us.”

The power of CafeSmart is that donations collected through cafes, coffee roasters, corporate partners and our generous donors like you are pooled together to provide a whole of community response to fund vital services. It is a powerful collaboration that results in meaningful impact on the ground, local to the cafes that are involved. Grants target marginalised communities, including people experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, poverty, food insecurity and hunger, disability, poor mental and physical health and social isolation. Many people’s vulnerability is driven by a chronic lack of affordable housing (to buy or rent), rising utility bills and basic essentials, resulting in financial stress.

It’s All About Your Local Community

Our CafeSmart event takes place during Homelessness Week (1st -7th August), and it’s more important than ever this year as the cost-of-living surges, and local homelessness services are swamped by people seeking help. This is why our small community grants are vital for funding Emergency Relief, Food Relief, and Material Aid Programs, to offer immediate financial support to those in crisis.

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Original story and image on broadsheet.com.au