Can't afford a coffee? Your cafe may soon have a solution

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This was published 10 years ago

Can't afford a coffee? Your cafe may soon have a solution

By Matt Holden

It began in Naples about 10 years ago, and spread to Bulgaria earlier this year after widespread social unrest. Now ''suspended coffee'' could become a regular order at cafes in Sydney.

Suspended coffee is a cafe variation of "pay-it-forward". The idea is simple: when you order and pay for a coffee, you also order and pay for a "suspended" coffee for someone who can't afford to buy one themselves. People who can't afford coffee can go into the cafe and ask if suspended coffees are available.

The idea sparked interest around the world after a post on Facebook before Easter.

Rita Capra, 30, saw the post and went looking for cafes in Sydney that were doing it - she didn't find any, so started ''the Suspended Coffees Sydney Facebook page to get the word out and allow people to share the names of cafes that were jumping on board", she says.

One of the first cafes to adopt the idea in Sydney was Pages in West Ryde, which has been offering suspended coffees since the Tuesday after Easter. Pages' Matt Eagleton says: "I saw the story on Facebook and thought it was a brilliant idea."

Eagleton says Pages has lots of customers who don't have much money. Staff are tracking the suspended coffees with tokens. "We took the logo from the website and turned it into tokens, which we keep in a jar beside the tip jar. We also have suspended coffee as an item on the cash register," Eagleton says.

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