Hot drinks, to you and I, are a part of everyday life. A coffee in the morning, a cuppa in bed and the rare occasion we fancy a hot chocolate. Talking of hot drinks, what the hell happened to Ovaltine?
To others, hot drinks are a luxury and in the icy weather, one can make a difference. A huge one. The Whitechapel Centre have been helping our homeless for over 30 years now and do incredible work. We’ve been in awe from afar, plotting, thinking and trying to curate a way we can work together, do more and give back. We came across a campaign called “Suspended Coffee”, a quite popular scheme worldwide but relatively small in the UK and especially so in Liverpool. There are a few purveyors who have been flying the flag for a while but we want to turn this into something special. The idea is simple. When you’re at your favourite local coffee shop, buy a drink for yourself and buy one for somebody less fortunate. An extra pound or two to you might not make a difference at the end of the month but to someone less fortunate off the street, finding out there is a hot drink available for them can make a massive difference.
We’re pleased to announce that we will be at the forefront of pushing this scheme but it isn’t enough for us to push it, we need your support. If every one of you bought a suspended coffee, tea or any hot drink a week, think of how many drinks that is? We have over 20,000 twitter followers alone, imagine one coffee a week or a month bought in advance for somebody else. Those small, seemingly insignificant gestures are usually the ones that go the furthest. We’ll be working alongside independents throughout Merseyside and Whitechapel to offer the homeless people of Liverpool a plethora of places to pick up a hot drink. We hope for this to be just the start of a partnership that could be something quite special. It will start with a nice cup of hot goodwill but who knows how could it end?
Coming soon we will have a list of all the places in Liverpool you can do this. If you own a restaurant, coffee shop, art gallery or absolutely anything where hot drinks can be picked up, please get in touch on david@independent-liverpool.co.uk and we’ll add you to our list. You might never end up meeting any of the people you’ve bought a coffee for but rest assured, you’ll be making a huge difference. Kindness is contagious, it is time to start spreading.