It can, at least in London, and most likely if you get your coffee from one of the Change Please stalls. They employ formerly homeless people who have been trained as baristas to help them get off the streets. Behind it is The Big Issue homeless magazine, comparable to Germany’s Hinz & Kunzt, but above all Change Please is driven by Cemal Ezel.

I saw him last year at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam, where he rightly won first prize in the Chivas Venture final. I was struck by the metaphors in his talk alone. “Change Please” as a request from a homeless person for spare change, but also as Cemal’s plea to please finally change something, and the to-go coffee cup, which is not uncommonly used for begging. The rest is equally well thought out, as you can see here:

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Change Please coffee is continuously sold at more and more mobile and fixed stations, getting more and more homeless people off the streets and into jobs, and in cooperation with the British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, they sell their own coffee blends. Of course, I had to pick some up on my last visit to the island, instead of Grind.

It was mentioned during his talk that Change Please would expand to other countries. I would love to see that happen. It feels so straightforward and good in so many ways.
Until then, we’ll continue to drink our coffee at home and happily spare a euro when asked, or buy the Hinz & Kunzt magazine (at least in Hamburg).

You can find out more about the project on the Change Please website: changeplease.org

This post is part of my coffee page and my All Things British page.