Homeless barista training with Hotel School London
Situated near Victoria station, The Passage is London's largest voluntary resource centre for homeless and vulnerable people. From simply providing a bed to sleep in for the night or even longer-term accommodation, they work in conjunction with their clients' individual needs and aspirations, setting realistic timelines and goals to help support them out of homelessness.
In 2017 we started on an exciting and inspirational journey, building a relationship and starting charitable work with The Passage as part of Hotel School. It's been the start of a great opportunity for our team to share their skills and positively impact others' lives.
The Passage and Hotel School charities
In collaboration with The Passage, we were invited by Jeremy Goring (The Goring Hotel) to provide a coffee demonstration as part of a taster week for the inaugural Hotel School. The Hotel School is a ten-week hospitality training course designed to give a broad survey of the service industry. From cooking skills to housekeeping, to reception & concierge, bar & cocktails and of course, coffee; graduates have the opportunity to learn from some of the industry's best, in some of London's most iconic venues.
Extract Coffee Roasters provide the Barista & Coffee programme in the form of Foundation & Intermediate barista training to students over two days in our training facility at Extract London. We are fortunate enough to meet the groups at the very first session, on the first day of term.
It's a privilege to be able to see the transition students have made by week ten: more confident and self-assured, it's a credit to the work done by those people who volunteer their time to the project, but truly the real credit goes to the students. With all the challenges they have experienced during their lives, see an opportunity and take it with both hands.
Barista training, Work Experience and Mentorship
Since 2017 our work together has expanded to include more barista training, fundraising, work experience placements, job placements and mentorship. The team have been able to stay in contact with some of the students and mentees and see Hotel School graduates successfully pursue their new careers.
Volunteering in Lockdown
In lockdown 2020 The Passage had to close the doors of their resource centre.
After finding emergency accommodation for all of their clients, Head Chef Claudette and an army of volunteers transformed the resource centre into a Food Hub, preparing and delivering 300+ hot, nutritious meals, 7 days a week to homeless people in emergency accommodation throughout lockdown.
Determined to continue helping in some way, Regional Manager, Harrison, Machine Technician, Hana and Account Manager, Martin joined Claudette’s army as regular volunteers in The Passage Kitchen to continue to support The Passage and Hotel School throughout lockdown.