Full of Beans: Costa doubles the Coffee Buzz by Giving Away Profits

Call in for a coffee at Costa on Saturday June 14 and you’ll get a bigger buzz than usual knowing that the company will spend the day’s profits to build schools for the children of the people who grow its beans. And all of the staff at Costa located in the Dolphin Shopping Centre on Kingland Crescent will donate their tips to the cause for a fortnight. The donation initiative is Costa’s way of supporting coffee-growing communities in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Uganda and Colombia, explained Katrina Johnson, Manager of the Dolphin Shopping Centre store. “June 14 will be Foundation Day for us; the day on which the company gives all of its profits to the Costa Foundation, and uses it all to build schools so the children of our coffee growers can have a better education and change their communities for the better in the future,” she said. This year’s target is to build five schools. In Guatemala two schools will be extended and a third built, as well as providing a clean water supply, which will benefit 700 children. In Costa Rica a primary school destroyed by a hurricane will be re-built, while furniture, computers and electricity will be provided; and in Colombia a primary school will be built and furnished including a cafe, library, science labs, a computer room and playground, as well as developing land for crop-growing. “Last year Foundation Day created schools for almost 1,000 children across three countries, and in Ethiopia it also paid for electricity in the area for the first time; it’s a great step forward,” Katrina continued. “In Uganda the Foundation Day money also helped to provide a supply of clean water. These are small things we take for granted in this country, but in a place like Uganda they are life-changing.” Dolphin Shopping Centre Manager Jerry Stampfer commented: “Sitting and drinking a cup of coffee must be the easiest way of supporting an extremely worthwhile cause. The Costa Foundation Day is a great initiative and forms a part of the centre’s work with tenants towards ISO14001, encouraging us all to think about our local environment and global responsibility. This kind of positive action is exactly the kind of thing that we would like to see more of in our centre. I hope the hard-working Costa staff are rewarded with a busy day and that our shoppers support this worthy cause.”