The Afri‐CAN Café Co‐operative Charity (‘ACC’) is pleased to announce the results of a 4 month project to evaluate and improve on the design of the Afri‐CAN Cafés in Blantyre.
The Afri‐CAN Cafés are constructed from re‐purposed 40 foot long steel shipping containers. They go into our plant in Malawi looking like tired, mini environmental disasters – which they are ‐ and they come out bright blue fully equipped Cafés and bakeries ready to serve the community. The local design innovations have included unique ovens created especially for the Afri‐CAN Cafés, tables and chairs from reclaimed steel and now an innovative pulley system to ensure that the substantial side vents designed to provide both sun shade and protection from the rain no longer take the entire staff and any passers‐by to help lift.
Innovations to the designs of the ovens have been made to meet the increasing demands on the Cafés. The oven in an Afri‐CAN Café is run all day with a set schedule to ensure that cakes or buns are available at the peak times. Milk Buns and Carrot Cake being the favorites. Design alterations now allow for two ovens to be installed within the Cafés to meet demand.