Liverpool couple create garden café to raise funds for CAFOD

Garden Baristas Jacqui and Alan

In a normal week, Jacquelyn Williams and her husband Alan would enjoy several trips to a local café or coffee shop. Lockdown made this impossible, so they decided to get creative. Jacquelyn and Alan set up their own garden café where all proceeds go to charity.

During lockdown, the couple from Liverpool embarked on a 'Coffee Challenge'. They created a coffee shop in their garden and donated what they would have spent on coffee to the coronavirus appeal of international development charity, CAFOD.

This innovative idea gained a lot of attention in the community and the pair invited their parish to get involved - to set up cafés in their own gardens and raise money to help vulnerable overseas communities.

Jacquelyn Williams is a CAFOD education volunteer. She said: "Before the lockdown, we never really thought anything about going a few times a week for a quick coffee and cake, but since we've been in lockdown, we realised how much we missed the experience of sitting down together for a relaxing hot drink.

"So, we decided to recreate the experience in our own garden - and it's been a real treat! We wanted to do this challenge to show everyone how easy it is to fundraise and help others.

"It doesn't have to be something big. A small gesture really can make a big difference."

The pair's chosen charity, CAFOD, has recently launched an emergency coronavirus appeal and is scaling up its support to local aid experts. These local experts are providing food to vulnerable families, as well as improving handwashing and sanitation facilities across communities.

CAFOD is also helping churches in developing countries to use their networks to share hygiene messages through Catholic radio stations and to produce posters in local dialects on infection prevention.

Find out more about CAFOD's work at: www.cafod.org.uk/coronavirus