Commonfolk Coffee on the Mornington Peninsula is run by a group of friends, who met through a local church. Sam Keck and Ben Hogan are hands-on in the stylish café complex, which serves premium coffee and fine food.
“We’re just a couple of ordinary blokes who really like coffee and were prepared to work really hard to see that vision that we had for our business come into fruition,” says Sam who now oversees 50 staff.
In its fifth year, Commonfolk has become an institution in this area, and the café bristles with customers who love to sip good coffee in a hipster venue.
Though, it’s not just coffee lovers who appreciate the work Commonfolk is doing.
“We were lucky enough to win the inaugural Mornington Peninsula ‘Business of the Year’ award in 2018, which was certainly a bit of an honour and a shock,” says Sam.
“So I guess the hard work of the team has really paid off.”
Giving Back
Through an initiative called ‘The Cup That Counts’, 20 cents of every coffee sold goes towards funding sustainable coffee production in Uganda’s Mt Elgon region. Here, fine Arabica coffee is grown at high altitudes.
However, global market forces can drive coffee prices so low that the cost of production exceeds the price farmers are offered for their beans.
“And immediately it clicked!” says Sam with a trademark grin.
“We’ve got to support this team in Uganda and get behind Ugandan coffee.”
So in 2014, Commonfolk helped to establish Zukuka Bora, a collective that’s 100% independently owned in Uganda, and works alongside coffee farmers.
By offering local growers above market rates for their green coffee beans, and paying dry season bonuses, farmers are able to increase production and improve infrastructure.
“We helped them to purchase some land and build a processing mill,” Sam explains.
“We also provided a lot of training for local farmers, and helped them buy higher quality seedlings.”
And in 2017, Commonfolk bought the first ever harvest of Zukuka Bora coffee.
The beans are hand roasted with great care by Production Manager Ryan Toleman. He’s tracking temperatures on a computer screen at the shop front, as customers look on while tucking into their lattes and piccolo espressos.
Commonfolk funds sustainable coffee production in Uganda’s Mt Elgon region. Source: Supplied
“There’s a year’s worth of work sitting in this drum right now produced by people on the other side of the world, who I’ll never meet. And I really want to do justice to their work,” explains Ryan while testing the colour of the beans as they roast at high temperatures in a steel barrel.
“And by buying their harvest, this year we’ve gone from 20-thousand people being positively impacted by this to closer to 100-thousand across multiple communities in the Mt Elgon region,” Sam says from the counter nearby.
Home Ground
Closer to home, Sam and Ben are also working with disadvantaged youth.
“Mornington Peninsula has some of the highest youth unemployment rates in Australia,” says Commonfolk General Manager Ben Hogan, who honed his skills in the aviation industry.
“And yet the local hospitality industry has hundreds of unfilled positions.”
Commonfold has partnered with Tanti Park Social Enterprises, to establish a youth training café in the region’s lower socioeconomic communities.
“Home Ground Café, is basically providing vocational training for youth who might otherwise not have the opportunity to enter the workforce, and may continue down a path towards welfare or unemployment,” Ben says.
And their graduates are already being offered full-time roles in nearby businesses.
“I think that’s what sets us apart,” says Sam sitting in the café garden dotted with edible plants.
“It’s our values and our vision and what we do outside the core business and that makes us special, I suppose.”
Co-founders of Commonfolk Ben Hogan and Sam Keck. Source: Supplied
These days Commonfolk directors are happy to advise others, who are setting out on a small business journey.
“The whole point of starting Commonfolk Coffee, was that we’re just ordinary people but we wanted to do exceptional things,” says Sam smiling.
