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Pop-up Collingwood cafe Co-Ground lends a hand, one coffee at a time

Roslyn Grundy
Roslyn Grundy

Todd Nicholls, manager of Co-Ground social enterprise coffee van, in Collingwood.
Todd Nicholls, manager of Co-Ground social enterprise coffee van, in Collingwood.Supplied

If you're having a coffee, it might as well be a cup of kindness.

Social enterprise Co-Ground, which began running events in 2015 in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, has opened a pop-up cafe in a refitted caravan parked in Collingwood.

Using a donated La Marzocco espresso machine, and with Five Senses providing the coffee and barista training for its volunteers, Co-Ground is dispatching coffee and a tight menu of toasties, a couple of salads, Butterbing cookie sandwiches and Noisette pastries.

All profits go to Vanuatu and the Philippines to support education and livelihood projects.

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After quitting his job as an accountant and volunteering for 13 months, Todd Nicholls has come on board as Co-Ground's first employee. He helped broker the deal with developers Pace to set up the mobile cafe on vacant land beside the developer's apartment display suite, and is seeking further opportunities to take the caravan on the road.

"Already we've receiving expressions of interest from people wanting to book us for events," he says. "The fact that our coffee tastes great means we have a pretty good return customer base. And people are quite happy to learn about the social impact we have."

Photo: Good Food

51 Langridge Street, Collingwood, co-ground.org

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Roslyn GrundyRoslyn Grundy is Good Food's deputy editor and the former editor of The Age Good Food Guide.

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