The Afri-CAN Charity (ACC) is proud to announce the arrival of The Afri-CAN Café at our first permanent site in The Old Cement Factory – Philippi. After weeks of testing our pilot scheme in Delft, training a dynamic team, market research and listening to community input, The Afri-CAN Café has finally landed at our official site in Philippi.
We are in the hub of Cape Town’s entrepreneurial business advice centre. The Business Place – soon to be The Container Walk, where Cape Town’s industrious entrepreneurs’ are gathering to build a ‘new business’ hub and trade landmark in Philippi’s Old Cement Factory.
Philippi is one of the largest townships in Cape Town, with an estimated size of about 150,000 people (2011 STATSSA). It is a relatively young township, alongside Khayelitsha and Delft, founded in the early 80’s. It is the farmland of Cape Town’s city centre and supplies about 80% of Cape Town’s fresh vegetables. 
Msingathi (a.k.a. May), our amazing Xhosa Chef, met ‘the veggie ladies’ yesterday. He came bounding into the Café with a handful of broad beans and rocket, proudly announcing that he’d just found our local salad and vegetable supplier and that they were only a few containers away from us, just next to the fish farm. We pride ourselves in sourcing local produce and supporting local businesses where we can.
Our team are busy preparing The Afri-CAN Café to meet The Business Place’s lunch needs – already orders for salads, open sandwiches and ‘proper’ coffee are being requested. We’ve visited all the young businesses (all in their own containers) in the complex and they are all delighted to finally have some good wholesome home-cooked meals on their doorstep.