Paper Cup Coffee in Liverpool is a café making a difference in the community.
Aside from serving delicious cakes, coffees and food, they also offer help for those experiencing homelessness.
Located on Queen Square, just next to the Q car park, the coffee shop is in a prime location to be a hub of support for Liverpool’s community of rough sleepers.
It is an extension of the Paper Cup Project, founded in 2015 by Michelle Langan, as a response to the rising homelessness crisis. In 2019 they were given official charity status and in 2022 Paper Cup Coffee shop was opened.
Michelle said: “The ethos of the shop for me is giving people some self-worth and value and making them feel important.
“Having a shop where people who are homeless can come in and be the same as everyone else and get treated like every other customer, it’s really important.”
Sadly, due to their reliance on donations and the cost-of-living crisis hitting the hospitality industry hard, they are struggling to stay afloat.
The Paper Cup founder said: “The price of everything has gone up and people are struggling a little bit more with their bills. So, I think cofee becomes more of a luxury than a necessity. We have noticed people aren’t spending as much so sales have gone down.”
any profits go back into the charity
The café has a ‘Pay it forward’ scheme, where customers are able to donate £3 which affords a hot drink for someone experiencing homelessness. This can also be done with one of their hot meals.
Michelle continued: “When you’re spending money with us, any profits from the shop go back into the charity so that we can help people who are homeless. So that money is going further, it’s not going into the pockets of big corporations. Your money is going to actually help people.”
Despite the financial pressures they are facing, Paper Cup Coffee is determined to continue to help people, especially during the winter months.
They are continuing to hand out their yearly Christmas packages. Customers can donate £5, £10 or £15 and this will be used to buy hats, socks and chocolates, among other things. These packages will be handed out to the homeless community around Christmas.
Michelle said: “For some of them that is the only present they will get, which really brings it home … because we take it for granted.
“When we did it last year one of the homeless guys we gave a present to burst into tears when he went outside. He said it was the first present he’d had in three years.”
To hear more from Michelle, listen to Safia Nawaz’s full interview on SoundCloud:
Featured image @PCPCoffee
