London baristas in coffee shop swap

On 8th November 2013 the Starbucks and Crisis partnership Christmas promotion “Share the Warmth” was launched. The initiative aims to raise over £100,000 for the homeless charity. To celebrate, Abdul Samad, an apprentice with Starbucks Brushfield Street store is swapping aprons with Sarah Holtam from the Crisis Skylight Café on Commercial Street.

The job swap coincides with the start of Starbucks “Buy One, Get One, Give One” (BOGOGO) offer which runs from 8-11th November and follows the arrival of Starbucks Christmas Red Cups the same week.

Abdul, aged 18, from Wapping is gaining skills and qualifications in customer service and barista mastery as part of the Starbucks Apprenticeship Scheme. By spending the day working at Crisis Skylight Café, Abdul will see how the money Starbucks raises over the festive season will help those in greatest need.

Sarah has been working at Crisis Skylight Café in London for almost a year, helping Crisis members to gain work experience and accredited qualifications, giving them the skills they need to find work and leave homelessness for good. Sarah will spend the day working with the Starbucks team and selling Starbucks Festive Favourite drinks while raising money for Crisis.

Abdul comments: “I have been an apprentice at Starbucks for four months now. It’s been great learning all about coffee and serving our community. The ‘Share the Warmth’ campaign is so important to everybody at Starbucks and I’m looking forward to finding out how Crisis Cafes support people in most need.”

Sarah says:  “Crisis is an incredibly rewarding organisation to work for.  Our cafés provide opportunities for homeless people to gain valuable work experience and earn qualifications to help them find work.  This partnership with Starbucks is a great way of highlighting the range of work we do at Crisis to tackle homelessness and it’s an exciting opportunity to meet the customers who are helping to raise money for our services this Christmas.”

The Share the Warmth campaign runs until Christmas with Starbucks Suspended Coffee initiative running from 12th November to 24th December.