Drink my Coffee - A Venture to support Kiwis with a disability
The Possibility Network is a project run by Adrian Coysh and Tony Cutting. The project was established to help people with a disability find employment.
Over the past few years the project has had some success but not nearly enough to help the many people with disabilities strive for nothing less than being normal, which includes being employed and financially independent. However, employers do not necessarily see their value and capability, and this potential is wasted, so the logical alternative is to create an opportunity for these people to run their own business.
Adrian will drive the project and be supported by Tony who will help with marketing and sales.
The team has one of New Zealand’s foremost coffee importers. They have over 40 years’ experience, the Possibility team are going to supply premium quality, freshly roasted coffee in a distribution type arrangement. The disabled person can utilise their local networks, and with training, support and guidance, create a loyal clientele of customers to appreciate a great coffee. There will be no upfront start-up costs for the disabled person. The team will look to secure coffee drinking clients to pre-order Coffee and help get the business started.
They will also look for support from third parties interested in helping make this venture a success.
The brand for this Coffee is called ‘Drink my Coffee’
The venture is selling premium coffee, which will be blended from beans originating from the highlands of Columbia and Papua New Guinea, which are both highly regarded growing areas. It will be roasted by Eightthirty using the most modern equipment available in NZ. They also have a world-renowned coffee judge, Jessica MacDonald who has tested it, and suggested a 50/50 blend and created some tasting notes, describing the flavour as “Caramel, brown sugar, malt biscuits and a light acidity”.
On Thursday last week, the team completed their first roast of 10kg under the guidance of Sam at Eightthirty – Sam loves the concept. He mentioned it is very personal to him as he was knocked off his bike as a nine-year-old. After the accident Sam had to learn how to walk and talk again over a number of years, he says he still has issues from this traumatic head injury.
Assisting him is Thomas Coysh (Adrian’s son), who is visually impaired but soon became a dab hand at packing the final product into three 200g options – beans, plunger and Espresso.
On Friday we delivered the first batch to Jeremy Staines who lives with Cerebral Palsy, and is a well-known identity in Pyes Pa, Greerton who has been striving unsuccessfully to find part time employment. We met at the Blind Foundation (now called Blind and Low Vision NZ) in Tauranga, and the smell of the coffee was so great that Jeremy had sold about a third of his stock to just the staff there!
Supporting him is Mike Pulman, Local Area Coordinator of Journey Together and many thanks to Kerry Webb ‘Inclusive Employment Advisor’ at Blind and Low Vision NZ for facilitating the meeting and buying four bags of coffee!
Branding himself Jeremiah X Coffee, he will be the first of many people with disabilities changing your coffee drinking habits throughout New Zealand and more importantly, gaining financial independence.
Support the project become a customer.
A 200gm bag of fresh roasted Coffee sent directly to your door is just $12.50 to order just email Tony on hello@tonycuttingdigital.co.nz
Support the project by ‘liking’ on Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/drinkmycoffeenz/
Photo - On Friday we delivered the first batch to Jeremy Staines who lives with Cerebral Palsy, and is a well-known identity in Pyes Pa, Greerton who has been striving unsuccessfully to find part-time employment. We met at the Blind Foundation (now called Blind and Low Vision NZ) in Tauranga, and the smell of the coffee was so great that Jeremy had sold about a third of his stock to just the staff there!
For more information please contact Tony via his email hello@tonycuttingdigital.co.nz
Ends
While Whittaker’s has to date sourced only Ghanaian cocoa beans to make its chocolate, it is now supplementing this with cocoa beans that meet its quality and ethical standards from other parts of Africa. Whittaker’s Chocolate Lovers will see changes to its packaging to reflect the cocoa origin change from next month.