Islington coffee shops are among thousands around the country coming together to support the industry in the nation’s biggest celebration of the hot drink.
Taking place from October 19 to 25 this year - rescheduled from late April and early May - UK Coffee Week is the annual event where shops, restaurants, roasters and their customers come together to raise funds for Project Waterfall.
This is a charity working to end water crises in coffee-growing communities across the world.
Justo Tripier, 32, owner of Frequency on King’s Cross Road, told the Gazette that his shop has been badly affected by the pandemic.
READ MORE: Six of the finest brunch spots in IslingtonWith a large clientele of office workers and tourists, Frequency has experienced a rapid decline in footfall since the coronavirus outbreak.
He said: “We reopened in June (after the lockdown). We started very slow, probably trading at around 10 per cent of what we were before.
“It did start picking up gradually over the months and we reached around 50pc of our previous trading levels. But when the government encouraged office workers to work from home, it put a stop to our growth and we are now only trading at around 30pc.”
However, he hopes to open a new site in Camden Passage in November.
During UK Coffee Week, Frequency will be donating 20p for every coffee sold to Project Waterfall.
Guido Gessarano, 47, owner of The Coffee Run on platform two at Highbury and Islington Station, said the shop will be donating 1p from every coffee to Project Waterfall.
He said the dramatic decrease of passengers using transport networks has hit his coffee shop hard.
“We’re happy to be able to open and keep serving our customers,” Guido said. “We want to be supportive of anyone who needs to take the public transport during this hard time.
“We like being involved in the waterfall project, it’s nice that we can keep an eye on the countries that are producing our coffee, we want to look after the coffee-growing communities.”
Founder of UK Coffee Week, Jeffrey Young, said the pandemic has impacted the whole hospitality industry, and that uncertainty has trickled down to the coffee-growing communities.
Donate £3 or a chosen amount to Project Waterfall by texting COFFEE to 70331.
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