Here at Gorilla Coffee Café, we believe that we can all do our bit to make the world a better place. Community is at the heart of what we do, and since opening in November, we’ve been lucky enough to be welcomed into the heart of Kings Heath. The idea for Gorilla Coffee was born from our experiences of cyclists feeling unwanted in cafes, so we really thrive on how we’ve subverted this with the sense of community and belonging we’ve created here. From Sunday morning rides, to a glass (or three) of wine after work on a Friday, we provide the opportunity to combine fitness with socialisation, in a friendly community environment, no matter your cycling ability (or lack thereof!). We’ve seen participation in our weekly rides grow from a couple of bike buffs to a dedicated cohort of 20 members, and we’re proud to be helping people make healthy life choices. Now, we want to continue this momentum by not only being part of the community, but by lending a helping hand to the community around us.
CSR has become part and parcel of most big businesses’ strategy, and rightly so. However, we believe that it shouldn’t just be left to the large corporations, but that even the smallest of businesses can get involved with giving back to the community. With this, we decided to put our money where our mouth was, and choose a charity partner for the year. When it came to selecting our Charity of the Year 2017, we enlisted the help of our customers, who nominated the causes they thought were most worthy. From here, we opened the vote to the public who decided that we’d support Anawin, a charity which supports women (especially those vulnerable to exploitation) and their children in the wider Birmingham community. The inclusion of our customers in this decision was really important to us as we want the whole Gorilla Coffee community to get involved in the exciting events we have planned, which ultimately we hope will make a huge difference to a worthwhile cause. We are developing a huge range of charity events to raise money for Anawim, in the run up to our main event, the iconic London to Paris cycle ride. There’s no excuse not to get active and involved when we’re putting the fun in fundraising!
We’re thrilled to be working with Anawim, and we’re sure that the community we have developed at Gorilla Coffee will be keen to get on board with helping those around them.
