Risha Lancaster, a co-founder of Coffee4Craig with her husband Hendrix, started the charity after her brother, Craig, tragically passed away in Cardiff in 2013 after facing street homelessness. She found out about his death on Facebook.
“He died of a heroin overdose in a carpark in Cardiff central, found out via facebook, found out that he had died.”
After the discovery of her brother, she posted on facebook and told people to hand out coffee to those sleeping on the street and say it’s from her brother Craig. That post kickstarted the street homelessness charity into what it is today, 13 years later.
Nowadays, they have a building in Cheetham Hill where they can cook large meals for homeless people, do arts and crafts, movie nights, and other events. There are showers within the building and lots of toiletries, clothes, food, and coffee that they can give to whoever visits.
They were endorsed as a part of Metallica’s 2019 tour as the charity they donated to in Manchester. 25 pence of each ticket sold was donated to Coffee4Craig raising them £40,000 that Risha Lancaster explained helped them immensely.
“February 2020 we moved into this building and we needed to do it up and everything and that was just before covid hit, and the lockdown,
“because we have the £40,000 from Metallica we were able to do all the essential things in the building that we did, if it weren’t for Metallica we wouldn’t be in the position we are in now.”
They also have another connection with a celebrity face with former Happy Mondays star, Bez, as a patron for the charity. Risha Lancaster spoke highly of his involvement.
“I know homelessness was a big passion of his, [..] so we asked him if he’d be a patron and he was honoured to be a part of Coffee4Craig so he’s still about when he’s not busy doing everything, he pops in!”
Around Manchester, 1 in 61 people are homeless, meaning that for every 10,000 people, 163 of those people are homeless. Within the total of 9,589 homeless people in Manchester, 197 people are rough sleeping, with that number increasing every day. Coffee4Craig are aiming for no one to ever have to spend a single night on the street.
Coffee4Craig are always looking for donations of a variety of items, toiletries, food and clothing. You can find them on various social media sites under @coffee4craig and on their website where you can donate money to their cause: https://www.coffee4craig.org/
“Coffee. We go through coffee like crazy.” – Risha Lancaster