Submitted by Guest on Thu, 2014-09-18 13:15
- STORIES FROM MAAI MAHIU, KENYA -
Café Ubuntu was built as a collaboration between CTC, Whole Foods Market and Whole Planet. It is hard to believe the Café opened almost a year ago! That first week was such a great experience and huge opportunity for the staff here as it was our first time to see and use an Espresso Machine. The Whole Foods Market Team trained us all on how to use it and make the best coffee in East Africa!
Opening the first Café in Maai Mahiu, we impressed our guests even more when we started making pizzas and introduced the Farm to Table concept with great help from Amara, a Mama Hope Global Advocate that spent the summer with us here in Maai Mahiu.
After working with Amara for 3 months we are realizing how essential the Café UBUNTU Demo Garden is. It produces herbs, vegetables and fruits that we use daily in the Café. The Garden is just another piece of the mission, to connect people to healthy food and healthy land in order to build a healthy community. Recently, we had a training session where we demonstrated to women from the GAPA (Grand Parents Against Poverty and AIDS) Project on how to make a health-conscious Butternut Squash soup. This was quite the eye-opener in the community as most people didn’t know what it means to eat healthy.
With big help from Amara and the few times that Nicole came by to share some new recipes (harsh sweet potato browns, corn fritters, cupcakes) we were empowered to hold the first Café brunch in July. This was such a good experience because we were able to have so many customers, serving different drinks and food all at once. These community events are a great opportunity for us to market Café UBUNTU and other CTC Programs.
Our regular customers are the local people within and outside Maai Mahiu, we also receive guests from tour companies and offer meals to our teams from the US. From our customers feedback the main reasons Café UBUNTU attracts so many customers is that we offer quality coffee and healthy food, great customer service, maintained hygiene inside the Café and the best facilities in Rift Valley. It doesn't hurt that the land is so peaceful, green, and full of positive energy.
It’s our vision to have Café UBUNTU bringing positive and healthy transformation to the community while empowering people to do amazing things...in the Kitchen.
Check out the Café UBUNTU blog for awesome updates from the Café team this month and beyond.