51Âþ»­

The hundreds of staff and students who walk through the doors of 51Âþ»­ Leicester’s (51Âþ»­) Riverside Café to grab their daily coffee will now be able to start their day with an extra feel-good factor thanks to a new type of sustainable coffee.

The university has partnered with social enterprise ‘Change Please’ – a sustainable coffee initiative set up to tackle homelessness in the UK through their love of good quality coffee, by donating 100 per cent of its profits into the community and helping homeless people into employment by training them to become baristas.

 Launched at an event this week by CEO Cemal Ezel, the partnership will see Change Please coffee served on campus at the Riverside Café, with the money made from the sales of each coffee being pumped into the local community, to help reduce the levels of homelessness in Leicestershire.

While staff and students sampled the coffee, Change Please CEO, Cemal Ezel opened the event by commending the new partnership, he said: “I am super proud to be launching a new site here at 51Âþ»­.

“The impact we believe we are going to make is really going to change the lives of so many people through customers buying a product they most likely would have bought anyway. For us this really speaks about the value and power of social enterprise and social business.

“Simply changing products and supply chains and changing how consumers think about the products that they purchase, all the way from the farmer who grew the products, to the shipping methods used to get to us, to the amount you pay and packing types, all of these supply chain choices can really make a huge difference to so many people.”

 He added: “We really believe social enterprise can make the world a better place and I would like to say a huge thank you to 51Âþ»­ for buying our coffee, supporting us and in turn homeless people in the Leicester community.”

 Change Please also embeds sustainability into the heart of its business by using solar panels on its vans, 100 per cent compostable coffee cups and sending all waste coffee grounds to be converted to bio-fuel, reflective of the university and its commitment to meet the standards of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

51Âþ»­'s catering partner Chartwells, who organised the event are honoured to be partnered with the social enterprise, Contract Director, Rebecca Reddan said:

“We’re delighted to have partnered with Change Please, not only does their coffee taste great, but you can be sure that with every coffee you buy at Riverside Café you’re playing a small part in supporting homelessness here in Leicestershire.”

The Riverside Café is located at the western end of the Vijay Patel Building, the home to 51Âþ»­’s art and design courses, the café is open to the public, as well as staff and students at the university.

The café will be open to the public on these hours: