Big Moose Coffee Co.
With homelessness on the rise in the UK, Jeff Smith of the Big Moose Coffee Co. wants to do something about it, and that something is a café. Fedor Tot finds out how the process works.
Tell us a little about what Big Moose is.
Four years ago, I decided to raise some money for Teenage Cancer Trust in Cardiff. Aged 50, I decided there was something inside me that wanted to help others, and we decided to open Big Moose as a kind of legacy for my best friend, whose nickname was Moose, who we lost to cancer 11 years ago aged 42.
Big Moose is a number of things. How does this cafe fit into it?
We’ve gotten involved with helping lots of other people. We have worked with disabled children, where we created a triathlon that we called Supertri For Super Kids. We had 100 children with different disabilities that got involved with the triathlon. Going back to the cafe, my daughter and I were doing some work with homeless people in Cardiff, going to down to a project called the Rainbow Run – an amazing organisation who go out all year helping to feed and bring warm clothing to the homeless people of Cardiff. But it kind of felt like we were helping, but not really changing lives.
The House Of St Barnabas members’ club in Soho, where my eldest daughter was working part-time, has a scheme where they engage with homeless people from shelters, putting them through a 12-week programme. And once the trainees get their qualifications, they are transferred to the club where they work as waiters, kitchen staff etc. We saw that working successfully and decided to try and do something in Cardiff – maybe change one person at a time.
Is that the ethos, to try and change something rather than just to help out temporarily?
We want to leave the world better than we found it. We are working very closely with Llamau, a young persons’ homeless charity in Wales; soon we’ll have the first person coming through their system. So there will be a homeless person working within the cafe, on a living wage, and then we will also mentor the person who comes through the door.
We haven’t had anybody through the doors yet – we’re a month into trading, and learning how to run a coffee shop is quite chaotic. We wanted to make sure that the chaos was first removed from the building – because these people often come from chaotic backgrounds, to suddenly come into a kitchen that is chaotic is not a good idea. We’re not trained with mental health or addiction, and just bringing someone into our domain like that will not be a smart thing. We would like to get a win to start with – we don’t want to have somebody come though and really let them down.
It’s ambitious – not to just go about trying to help others, but also to do something completely new, like setting up a café.
Some would say mad.
Would you say you’re mad?
I don’t think so. It’s just that I don’t tend to have fear. I tend to look at things and break them down to bite-sized chunks and ask, “Can we do this?” I couldn’t do this without the help of 650 donors plus my friends, family, associates. It’s not a one-man show. Hopefully, what we have created here proves I’m not mad. About a year and half ago, you may have been able to say that. But mad to dream? Hopefully not.
Where does that no-fear attitude come from?
I grew up in a very poor background, having to hustle and work hard. I played ice hockey from the age of 10. I ended up playing professionally, which brought me to Cardiff [Devils]. That taught me how to be brave and strong. I think [my lack of fear] is just in my DNA. I’ve dreamt big and gone for it and managed to achieve a few things.
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Big Moose Coffee Co., 4-5 Frederick St, Cardiff. Info: 029 2079 8999 / www.bigmoose.co/bigmoose-coffee-co