Self-study activity:
Watch the three minute video clip by clicking on the picture below or here and say whether the statements below are true or false.
The activity is suitable for intermediate students.
1 Suspended coffee is a global initiative.
2 Only homeless people and refugees can get a suspended coffee.
3 A wide spectrum of people donate suspended coffees.
4 You can only get a suspended coffee if you have been given a card.
5 According to Steve, the suspended coffee project is also useful for the donors.
6 In Lloyd's opinion, one of the advantages of suspended coffee is that contributors see where their money goes.
7 The venues where suspended coffee is served do not make money.
The idea of suspended coffees originated in Naples, in Italy, and it’s kind of grown worldwide. Suspended coffee is where someone buys a coffee for somebody else who is in need, which can be, they could be homeless, they could be really hard up on their luck or it could be collaborated in the refugee center down the road, and the coffee is already paid for. They just come in and ask for what they would like and it’s also can be carried off from there.
The people who donate can really vary. It can be business people who just grab a coffee on their way to work. It can be mums with young kids. We get a lot of our regular customers who donate regularly.
Good morning
Hi there
Can I have a double-shot latte, please and I’ll buy a suspended coffee as well.
I think the scheme is a good idea. We were asked about it as regulars, it’s not intrusive.
We have two ways of doing it, so we hand out cards to some of the local communities are around here, specifically their refugee project, we hand those out to service users who they think can benefit from having someone to come and get a coffee.
May I take a suspended coffee?
And then there are the ones who come in and book in so we have a tally on the wall of how many bookings we have available to someone coming off the street and just say, ‘I’ve heard about suspended coffee, can I have one?’
Would it be possible to have a suspended coffee, please?
Of course one minute.
I’m not getting a lot of money myself at the moment, so there are times when you need a coffee or you want a coffee and just don’t have enough money to get one, and it’s always a place like this you can go and get one thanks to the generosity of other people. It’s good for the community, just ask people to come out with themselves a bit, maybe you’re not stuck in your own little world, and you’re not staring in the same four walls all the time. If I was stuck in the house all day 24/7 I’d be going crazy, and now I can come up here and that makes things a lot easier.
This is more of a local scheme. This is sort of a community café, so I know the people here, they know me. I know the person who runs the asylum project, the renewal programme. I trust everybody. You see your contribution actually working in a direct and local way rather than going off to some international charity.
There are a lot of people who say, oh, you know, this is business making money. Yes, we do profit from it but at the end of the day that profit is always going into building the community. We trust our customers, our customers trust us and I think it’s a really good way of embracing the community’s spirit and for people to feel good.
Key:
1T 2F 3T 4F 5T 6T 7F
