A Melbourne-based social enterprise coffee roastery, preservery and cafe that puts people and planet first.
The coffee arm of The Corner Store Network started with a chance encounter at the Darwin airport between Co-Founder Andrew and another Melburnian who was trying to kickstart Timor-Leste’s coffee industry. Andrew and fellow Co-Founder Alice began roasting coffee using a popcorn popper in the family garage. As things took off, they started visiting Timor-Leste more frequently, forming strong partnerships with subsistence farmers. It was on these trips that the father-daughter duo became aware of the chronic food shortages experienced in the nation. For a portion of the year food is in abundance thanks to favourable weather conditions, however around 40% gets wasted due to a lack of market access for farmers. As a result of food wastage and challenging weather conditions, the nation experiences a ‘hungry season’ from November to February where intense food scarcity prevails. In order to ensure food security and nutrition, both in Timor-Leste and Australia, the preserving arm of The Corner Store Network was born.
For every kilo of coffee roasted they plant and nurture a tree through Timorese community forestry program, WithOneSeed. Their coffee packaging is also 99% home compostable. As for their preserves, each batch is made by volunteers from fruit and vegetables that have been donated by the local community. So for every jar you consume you are preventing food from going to landfill or rotting on the ground.
Barack Obama himself once tweeted Alice, commending her efforts as an environmental activist in the wake of the devastating 2019-2021 bushfires.
They recently created a line of ethical tees, totes and tea towels with designs by Melbourne artist Carla Scotto. They are also weeks away from finishing construction on our flagship Timorese roasting, preserving and training hub. Once complete, the facility will make and sell coffee and preserves to ensure food security for local communities, plus provide training to women from around the country empowering them to start their own preserving business in their villages.
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We make our products with a great deal of love and care and over the years we have found that the partners who benefit most from selling our products are those that not only clearly understand what we do, but also why we do it. They value our mission of sharing great quality tea and using business to improve the world we live in.
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