7-Eleven, The Salvation Army celebrate two million cups of coffee poured at Magpie Nest Café
The cafe serves over 3,500 free meals each week.
7-Eleven announced The Salvation Army Melbourne Project 614’s Magpie Nest Café has poured two million cups of coffee for vulnerable people.
The chain donated another coffee machine to the project in celebration of the milestone.
“The Salvation Army wants to make a difference for people doing it tough. Melbourne Project 614 here in Bourke Street came about to serve those who are struggling with homelessness and other challenges in the City of Melbourne. The Magpie Nest Café gives vulnerable people a place to drop in night and day. We sit down over a cuppa and start building a relationship to understand the services we can connect the client with,” Melbourne Project 614 Commanding Officer, Major Brendan Nottle said in a media release.
“7-Eleven gave us one of their coffee machines in 2014. They saw that by having a machine, it would allow us to spend more time talking with clients. So they installed the machine, and have been keeping it maintained, and stocked in beans and cups ever since. We’re really excited that 7-Eleven have been able to provide an additional machine, and also a single use cup recycling unit for our Magpie Nest Café. These machines have now poured two million cups of coffee,” he added.
“I’m honoured to be here to show our support [for] the Salvos and the incredible work they do. Homelessness is an issue that we are very aware of and our team wanted to do something to help those they see around the stores. The first coffee machine was an obvious place to start. By providing something we are well set up to support, it gave the Salvos team more time to focus on clients,” 7-Eleven Australia CEO and managing director Angus McKay said.
“Since then, we’ve become more connected with the Salvos, as well as the work the team do at Melbourne Project 614. Our team volunteer(s) in the café, they donate as part of our workplace giving, and they take part in donation drives. Our city store teams also pick up the phone to let the Salvos outreach teams know there’s someone nearby who might need help,” he said.
