Pace of Collingwood Development Group has collaborated with Co-Ground social enterprise to build a pop-up café.
Thanks to a crowdfunding campaign and generous support, Co-Ground Coffee’s mobile café launched in February 2017, with 100 per cent of profits going to support education and livelihood projects in the Asia Pacific.
Co-Ground’s current project is in Vanuatu’s Epi Island, where the community has identified the need for a safe place to teach, and a library to tackle illiteracy. Co-Ground has passed the way way mark in the funding required for its current school library and classroom building project, with $41,000 raised and a target of $70,000. Key supporters have included Rotary International, Rotary Club, with guidance from the Vanuatu Ministry of Education.
Co-Ground social enterprise manager Todd Nicholls says passion drives the cafe and social enterprise.
“Co-Ground Coffee is more than a café, it is the answer to sustainable funding for Co-Ground. Co-Ground Coffee runs on a 100 per cent model, where 100 per cent of the profits from the café fund Co-Ground and its projects. This way, everyone who purchases a coffee from Co-Ground is directly supporting our organisation and our grass-roots projects in the Asia Pacific,” he says.
“Not only that, we also stock other social enterprises. We love how supportive Melbourne’s coffee community has been, and how delivering high quality delicious coffee can make such a big difference to our pacific neighbours.”
Co-Ground launched in 2015 in response to the devastation caused by record-breaking category 5 Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu.
A year later, Co-Ground’s Andrew Mellody was awarded the 2015 individual recipient of the Anti Poverty Awards for his tireless work with Co-Ground. The social enterprise then grew to a team of 30 in Australia, supports eight villages in remote Vanuatu, and has a growing global team of ambassadors, entertainers and advisors.
To kick start the pop-up café, Five Senses Coffee generously donating its coffee, and La Marzocco donated an espresso machine.
Co-Ground café is open Wednesday to Sunday, 7am to 3pm on the corner of Wellington and Langridge Street, Collingwood.
For more information visit co-ground.org