Organisers of the 2024 CafeSmart campaign have been overwhelmed with the response from the Australian coffee community, with 800 cafés taking part to support local charities tackling homelessness.
Under the umbrella of national not-for-profit association StreetSmart Australia, CafeSmart aims to bring the coffee industry together for the week-long campaign. During the past 14 years it has distributed over $2 million to more than 1,1000 community projects nationwide.
“Cafés across the country went all out, and it was incredible to see so many vibrant, yellow themed posts and stories,” says Campaign and Events Coordinator at StreetSmart Liz Bayrak.
“The StreetSmart team can all agree – we’ve never had a response like this before. It was incredible to see how much enthusiasm and energy the community poured into CafeSmart this year.”
This year key coffee players La Marzocco and Vitasoy, as well as Coffee Tools Distributing and Prana Chai, sponsored the campaign and hosted various activities.
On 16 August the main fundraising day took place, in which cafes around the country donated $1 per every coffee sold and encouraged their customers to chip in too. Coffee roaster Ona also collaborated with Butterboy, Vitasoy, and Grada Coffee at its Sydney café for an additional fundraising activity.
The CafeSmart team are currently collecting donations.
“We can’t wait to share the impact of the donations raised through CafeSmart in the coming months. It’s always a highlight to see how these funds make a difference with our community partners. We’ll also be celebrating our top cafes and roasters in our industry awards,” says Liz.
As the campaign closes, CafeSmart partners Market Lane have also teamed up with Moccamaster to give away two Moccamaster Selects in the colour yellow pepper. Entries are $5 each, with all proceeds going towards the cause.
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