Each rider will raise over $1,600 to fund the nonprofit’s mission to provide basic healthcare necessities in Nepal.
BY KATRINA YENTCH
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Cover photo courtesy of Lucian Dachman for Unsplash
Many coffee professionals are familiar with combining caffeine and cycling in their daily lives, but for the nonprofit charity PHASE Worldwide, putting a new spin of this combination was a task worth pursuing.
PHASE Worldwide is a nonprofit company based out of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and they’re hosting a cycling tour in March 2020 that will take riders from London to Paris in 200 miles. Le Tour de Café will span three days from March 18-22, with the final destination being Allegra Events’ Café! Festival & Expo that Saturday. In order to participate, cyclists must fundraise €1,500 ($1,652 USD) and register for €200 ($220 USD), which covers the cost of meals, accommodations, and transportation during the ride (which also includes travel back to London or Bristol).
“We are coffee enthusiasts ourselves at the charity and came up with the idea with a partner of ours, Stephen (Paweleck) from Django Coffee Roasters in Southport, U.K.,” explains Jonathan Scorer, communications and partnerships manager at PHASE. “We realised there is a great connection between coffee and cycling (as often the two go hand-in-hand as people’s main passions!), so we decided to put them together as an event to inspire the coffee industry.”
Le Tour de Café promises to be a scenic spectacle, taking riders through the rolling hills of the British countryside and into the bright green fields of Northern France. “Over the years we have devised a perfect route that is nicely undulating, not too easy, not too difficult and that takes in breath-taking English and then French scenery along the way,” says Jonathan. “We’re sure that on this trip there will also be plenty of stops to pull out the AeroPress for a quick brew on the side of the road to keep everyone moving!”
PHASE started in 2005 as a nonprofit to support projects in the health, education, and livelihoods of people primarily in the rural and remote communities of Nepal. In partnership with PHASE Austria and PHASE Nepal, some of these projects have included adult literacy, girls’ empowerment and teacher training, and agricultural support. PHASE has also previously hosted outdoors-oriented fundraisers for their mission, including a “Bristol to Basecamp” (in the Everest mountains) backpacking trip that raised over €45,000 earlier this year.
To participate in the ride, you can find full details here, and be sure to register by November 29, this Friday!
