Coffee is now directly helping the homeless. Pic: Josh Lamb

An award winning charity has opened a coffee kiosk in a London Underground Station for the first time, staffed by the homeless.

Clapham Common Underground Station is the new home to charity Change Please’s twelfth coffee venture in London, where homeless men and women can be trained as baristas, and earn the London living wage, and find accommodation within ten days of beginning their training.

Providing the living wage is not the only thing working for Change Please offers, the staff also get support from social workers offering therapy, and social housing. 

Cemal Ezel, founder of Change Please said: “We’re finding people who are homeless and bringing them back into society”. 

Ezel’s sentiment is one that’s echoed by the staff. Maik Tovar, 35 is a barista at the Clapham branch, who helps train the homeless. He said: “In my experience, you don’t need money to help, you need a purpose. It’s so rewarding to help someone get back on track”. 

Good Coffee Doing Good. Pic: Josh Lamb

Change Please is a social enterprise located nationwide, where all profits made go back into supporting the homeless. They have partnerships with organisations such as The Big Issue, Transport For London, and local Clapham homeless support centre, Ace Of Clubs. Customers who buy from the kiosk can also purchase an Ace Of Clubs meal card for a pound. They can then give this to the homeless on the streets to redeem at the support centre.

Ace Of Clubs, located on St Alphonsus Road in Clapham provided Change Please with their first homeless member of staff, Marco, at the tube station. Nicola Lawton, 43, who works for Ace Of Clubs, said one of the main issues when moving the homeless into work, is their fear of losing  benefits. “They (homeless) panic, but Change Please support them with the living wage, so they can actually pay for their rooms, they’re making people happy. They work slowly at first, they don’t drop them in at the deep end, and they support them. It’s amazing”. 

Public reaction has also been positive, with customers going to the kiosk as a result of the spread of good news. Change Please offer their own brand of coffee, “an adventurous blend from all around the world” says it’s label, with all farmers making the coffee supporting fair trade.