Photo credit: The Kindness Pandemic Facebook page
A Queensland coffee shop is grabbing the attention of Australians and people around the world with its thoughtful campaign that enables customers to anonymously buy a cup of coffee for someone in need.
The Bean N Loaf café in the Brisbane suburb of Fitzgibbon has an initiative called ‘Pay with a Post-it’, in which customers with a bit of spare change can buy two coffees instead of one.
They then write a simple message on a Post-it Note – such an “Enjoy your day” – and the note is placed on a board. Anyone passing by who can’t afford to indulge themselves then takes a note off the board and hands it in at the counter for a freebie.
“Lost your job or doing it tough,” says the notice. “If so, enjoy a coffee already paid for by a stranger. We’re all in this together.”
A customer of the café, Lizz Chadwick, saw the campaign and posted a photo on a Facebook group called The Kindness Pandemic,which has 564 000 followers.
The post has now gone viral and people around the world are voicing their support and suggesting other businesses, such as bakeries, that could do something similar.
To get the concept going, the owner of the Bean N Loaf, Rudra Chhetri, stick 10 of his own Post-it notes on the board and thereafter clients embraced the idea and there is now a steady stream of notes.
“It just kept going from there,” he said in an interview with News.com.au, adding the cafe has easily gone through a minimum of 300 Post-its since launching the initiative during lockdown.
“It’s a good cause and we would definitely like it to see other cafes adopt it too – a lot of people are willing to give and it’s a platform which can provide that.”
In her Facebook post on The Kindness Pandemic, Lizz Chadwick told readers: “A gentle reminder that kindness can be so easy to spread. I cannot wait to watch it grow to be covered in Post-it’s! I’ll be adding one each time I go!
“We need more of these around! Everywhere!”
Others who read the social media post were quick to add their own comments.
“I wish all cafes [and] coffee bars would adopt this idea. It would make such a difference to all the ‘forgotten’ people out there by showing them they are not so forgotten after all,” said one person.
“So beautiful and caring,” said another.