 An exciting and dynamic set of public and cultural events relating to coffee and foodservice take place during UK Coffee Week™ to further increase public awareness and knowledge of coffee quality, preparation and ethical sourcing.
Participating coffee shops are encouraged to develop their own internal and external activities to showcase their coffee expertise and ethical credentials as well as enable further engagement with the local community. UK Coffee Week 2011 was jam-packed with fundraising activities and events.
Highlights included:
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Smashing the official and unofficial world record for the most espressos made in an hour at The London Coffee Festival on Saturday 9 April. A team of more than 100 UK baristas produced a staggering 12,003 espressos in one hour. That’s an incredible 3.33 espresso shots per second. Click here for full details, photos, participants and footage.
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The London Coffee Festival (Friday 8 - Sunday 10 April), the flagship event of UK Coffee Week 2011, was a resounding success in its first year. The festival was attended by 7,500 people over the three days who together consumed over 70,000 coffee samples! Visitors were treated to a wide array of coffee, gourmet food, tea, cocktails, live music and a thought-provoking seminar and debate programme. The Allegra Foundation hosted a space at the festival to educate visitors about Project Waterfall and UK Coffee Week.
Check out the festival photos and visit the website for more information.
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Old Street, EC1 coffee shop Look Mum No Hands hosted an energy-filled, high drama Roller Racing Challenge on Wednesday 6 April. Competitors representing coffee shops across London battled it out on stationary racing bikes over a 500m distance. See the full results and photos here.
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Coffee shops in Darlington in the North East of England collaborated to organise the first ever North East Coffee Festival organised by Afternoon Tease. During the week participating coffee shops held barista workshops, in-store coffee roasting and coffee tastings. Coffee lovers were encouraged to follow a coffee treasure map of all participating coffee shops with a prize for the winner.
Click here for Festival photos on Flickr
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The official UK Coffee Week launch at the beautiful Hempel Hotel on Monday 4 April sponsored by Tchibo Coffee Service. German artist Wolfgang Riegelsberger exhibited his stunning coffee art at this invite-only event.
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The glamorous red-carpet Gala Event was hosted by United Coffee on Tuesday 5 April at the Langham Hotel. We were blown away by the first live performance of the official UK Coffee Week song “Coffee” (performed by Sam Smith). |
Find a fundraising activity or event in your local area for UK Coffee Week 2012.
Coming soon...
To launch UK Coffee Week in April 2012, a sponsored 10Km (6.2 miles) walk carrying up to 10L of water for 5Km along the River Thames will take place in aid of Project Waterfall. The Big Challenge being held on 15 April, represents the difficult daily task of fetching water by women and children in Africa.
More than 1,000 participants are expected to complete The Big Challenge. Collectively this will cover 10,000Km (6,214 miles), the distance from London to Tanzania where Project Waterfall is currently providing communities with clean water.
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Sunday 15 April 2012 |
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| Registration: |
09:00 - 10:30 |
| Start times: |
10:30, 11:00 and 11:30 |
The walk will take approximately 2 to 3 hours to complete and will start at The Scoop at More London, the amphitheatre situated beside City Hall and next to the iconic Tower Bridge on South Bank. Participants will head west along South Bank, over Westminster Bridge, east along Victoria Embankment and over Tower Bridge, to finish back at The Scoop. Maps will be provided and marshals will guide participants along the way.
At the half way point, marshals will give participants up to 10 litres of water to carry for the remaining half of the journey.
Imagine a life without water flowing freely from a tap. Imagine waking up at dawn and spending six hours fetching water for your family. One in eight people worldwide do not have to imagine this – it is their reality.
In rural Africa women and children often travel for hours to fetch water. The real tragedy is that, having spent so much time and effort reaching a water source, the water is often dirty, polluted and unsafe to drink.
The distances that we will cover as part of The Big Challenge are reflective of the long distances walked to collect water every day in developing countries and will give us a small taste of what daily life is like for the people we are fundraising to support.
The daily burden of collecting water prevents children from going to school and adults from working. Worse still, diseases like diarrhoea and dysentery caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation result in the deaths of 4,000 children every day.
There is a set fundraising target of £50 per person but there is no limit on how much can be raised! A £10 registration fee will be required, to contribute to administration of the event. Once registered, participants will recieve a fundraising pack, with details about how to maximise sponsorship.
Funds raised will support Project Waterfall to deliver sustainable clean water projects in African coffee-producing countries.
- £50 could pay for a technician to train a village pump attendant for three days on pump maintenance
- £175 could pay for a technician to install a hand pump to 10 meters or the cost of facilitating a community to acquire the land containing a legal water point
- £250 could pay a technician to install a hand pump to 45 meters
- £650 could pay for the cost of a plastic water tank of 10m3 capacity
The Big Challenge information sheet is available for download. |
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Coffee@Work is bringing UK Coffee Week into your workplace!
Coffee@Work provides an easy way for workplaces to get involved in UK Coffee Week by encouraging coffee and tea drinkers to donate a minimum of £1 for beverages made at work during the week. Donations raised will go to Project Waterfall.
Coffee@Work, working to provide clean water
to those in need.
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Businesses and organisations of all sizes are invited to participate in Coffee@Work.
Participating workplaces will receive:
- Promotional material and creative ideas on how to encourage involvement within the workplace
- Donation boxes
- A dedicated donations page for online payment
It is recommended that a workplace champion co-ordinates the fundraising initiative and invites those that drink hot beverages at work to donate £1 or another suitable amount.
There are lots of additional ways to get staff involved, for instance, workplaces could host special coffee or tea events like a ‘Tanzanian coffee tasting’ morning or a High Tea gathering where donations can be collected.
Many of us would agree that we enjoy a coffee or tea at work. Coffee@Work provides an opportunity to give something back to African coffee-producing countries where many do not have access to clean water.
Funds raised will support Project Waterfall to deliver sustainable clean water projects in African coffee-producing countries.
- £50 could pay for a technician to train a village pump attendant for three days on pump maintenance
- £175 could pay for a technician to install a hand pump to 10 meters or the cost of facilitating a community to acquire the land containing a legal water point
- £250 could pay a technician to install a hand pump to 45 meters
- £650 could pay for the cost of a plastic water tank of 10m3 capacity
A Coffee@Work information sheet is available for download. |
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Hold your own fundraising event for UK Coffee Week and showcase your expertise and ethical credentials as well as enable further engagement with the local community.
Ideas could include:
- Coffee tastings and talks
- Barista demonstrations
- Local art and cultural exhibitions
- Host community engaging fundraising events (e.g. ticketed events held out of normal opening hours), such as open mic night, coffee speed dating, performances by local musicians or a coffee quiz
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Do you have a great idea for a UK Coffee Week fundraiser? Register here
We’ve got lots of hints and tips to help make your event a success:
Planning your event
Order or download posters, leaflets, press release and more |
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