These are the statistics to think about:
[column type=”one-third”] [feature_headline type=”center” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ icon=”users”] 2 out of every 3 people under the age of 24 are unable to find and sustain a job in South Africa; this age group represents 20% of the population (Harambee 2013). [/column] [column type=”one-third”] [feature_headline type=”center” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ icon=”cutlery”] 77% of all households in South Africa are either moderately or severely food insecure. (United Nations 2013) [/column] [column type=”one-third” last=”true”][feature_headline type=”center” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ icon=”briefcase”] Lack of training and employment is a critical issue. Townships have severe unemployment with Gugulethu, population 400,000 alone seeing a 70% unemployment rate. [/column] [custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”true”] The Afri-CAN Cafes [/custom_headline]The Afri-CAN Cafés are branded cafes and bakeries. They are created by converting 12m disused shipping containers. The Cafés train and employ directly on a part-time and full-time basis around 10 people and indirectly employ another 10. We chose part-time roles to specifically encourage students and mothers to have flexible working hours.
Local teams create each Café menu and wherever possible we use local supplies and services, again to maximise the benefit of the Cafés to the local community. Each Café has been created to become a self-supporting enterprise in time. [custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”true”] Individual Skills Development [/custom_headline]
Individual Skills Development is an important part of our objectives. We’ll train each Staff Member to an accredited standard, recognised across the industries in which we work, including but not exclusively, hospitality. We anticipate positive staff turnover, where people leave to join other organisations using the skills they learned with The Afri-Can Cafés. Allowing us to train and employ more people from the community.
The Operational Manuals for Staff Members of The Afri-CAN Cafés are rigorous in their demands, as you’d expect from a service industry provider. We also train our managers to responsibly manage their staff. Here are some of the skills it takes to run one of our locations:[column type=”one-half”]
- Management Leadership
- Assistant Management Leadership
- Wait Staff
- Book Keeping
- Seven-point Touch-point
training (customer engagement) - Work stations
- Stock taking
- Stock ordering
- Till operation
- Staff rota management
- Food & drink preparation
- Food hygiene
- Health & Safety in the workplace
- Administration (permits/permissions)
- Risk Management. [/column] [column type=”one-half” last=”true”]
- Equipment maintenance
- Security
- Logistics
- First aid training
- IT skills
- Security
- Human resource management
- Entrepreneurial skills
- Marketing
- Complaints management
- Market research
- Fire prevention
- Retail roll-out strategy skills
- Quality control
- Product development
- Sales skills (upselling) [/column][custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”true”] Positive Community Impact [/custom_headline]The positive impact to the Community from an Afri-CAN Café and the Free School Breakfasts Program is wide and demonstrable; these positive impacts are in no particular order:Access to affordable, quality food. First and foremost it’s a Café! We will provide quality affordable food for the community and provide a destination to go to meet, socialise, work, read and provide what cafes the world over have provided for years.We will employ people directly and indirectly, we estimate around 10 per café directly and 10 indirectly, our aim is to have ‘a lot’ of our cafés around South Africa, creating employment and disposable income for Staff Members.
We’ll source our supplies locally wherever possible. Meat, milk, eggs, wood, fruit, vegetables etc – all from local businesses.We’ll outsource to local firms too, such as security.Container conversion is an important role too. We’ll convert them in South Africa and we’ll use local tradesmen on site to finish the development phase.Community projects are important to us, whether it’s providing sanitation for a local crèche or engaging in home delivery for the elderly. We’ll be looking at and engaging in a few of these.[custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”true”] Positive Impact on Staff Members [/custom_headline]Without the support of the local community an Afri-CAN Café cant work. That support begins with the willingness of people of all ages to train and work there, and for the community to use the Cafe. Here are a few of the positive impacts on Staff Members we see:We’ll provide a professional accredited training platform, creating business competence and confidence.We will provide leadership training to the managers and assistant managers. This will include entrepreneurial training for area managers. 
We will provide both full-time and part-time employment, to get a broad reach across those people wanting to become Staff Members and allowing flexible hours for those that need to study or who are parents.We will encourage personal financial management and create disposable income.Perhaps most importantly we aim to engender a sense of social standing and pride in the achievements of our Staff Members, both as individuals and as members of a team. [custom_headline type=”left, center, right” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”true”] Our Brand [/custom_headline]We take this very seriously. Every Café is highly distinctive and identical in all regards. Our brand is synonymous with our message. The creation of employment, through training and the additional provision of community services throughout South Africa. Our brand is our quality assurance and represents an organisation that we hope every Staff Member feels a sense of achievement and pride being part of.
