LOCAL CAFE DELIVERS SMILES AND OVER 800 FREE LATTES & DONUTS TO FRONTLINE WORKERS OVER THE PAST 9 WEEKS
Social-profit cafe, Third Space Cafe, gave free beverages and donuts to hospital workers, local essential services and community members by engaging their social media following. They donated proceeds from donuts sold to local charities, including over $1,000 worth of food to the Central Okanagan Food Bank.
With 9 weeks of quarantine behind us and businesses slowly returning to somewhat normal operations this week, Third Space Cafe looks back on what has been one of their busiest seasons since opening, despite the challenges of a global pandemic.
“From the beginning our cafe’s mandate has always been to be a place of refuge for our community – a place where you can go when you need a break from home and work; a place to feel like you’re not alone – a ‘third’ space. We didn’t want to change that goal just because everyone was in isolation, so we were determined to figure out a way to safely innovate and create that community despite having a skeleton crew and many limitations,” says Operations Manager, Lonni Van Diest.
While they limited services to curb-side pickup and takeaway, the cafe launched an online store overnight and took to social media to announce daily giveaways to Hospital Staff, Long Term Health Aids, Child Care Workers, Grocery Store Employees, First Responders and other Healthcare Workers.
“Third Space is a cafe that was created around the idea of people connecting and coming together for the common good,” says Mikro Creative Marketing Director, Greg Sebell. “We had to figure out a way to make that magic happen online instead,” he says. “We ran contests daily and gave away donuts and drinks. We challenged followers to tag friends they wished they could share a donut with, or tell us about their favourite essential businesses in the community – then we’d surprise those nominated businesses with free coffee and donuts. It was so fun to watch the community really team together online and help us give back.”
The cafe partnered with local businesses Amore Mio and MealPrep4You, donating .50 cents from each donut sold to the Central Okanagan Food Bank one week and Third Space Life Charity’s Student Care Program the following week. Thanks to the community’s overwhelming response they sold over 1,000 donuts and donated the equivalent of $1,000 worth of food to the Food Bank and $200 to the Student Care Program, which provides free counselling to university students on campus at UBCO.
“We were determined to make lemonade out of these lemons and I think we did just that. We banded together as a community and found a few bright moments in some dark times,” says Van Diest.
Third Space Cafe is a social-profit cafe that pours proceeds into the community and Third Space Life Charity, which provides supportive counselling, mental health resources and education to Okanagan residents. Third Space Cafe will resume normal hours on Tuesday, May 19th, 7-5 Monday – Friday, 9-4 Saturday.
To place an order, visit ThirdSpaceCafe.online, or text (250) 470-7188.
For more information on Third Space Life Charity visit ThirdSpaceCanada.org.
