Leeann Edwards, Cafe Owner

Cafe Lets People Buy Vouchers To Buy Homeless A Meal

A cafe is selling customers vouchers to buy a homeless person a meal - and have sold hundreds already.

Shop owner Leeann Edwards came up with the idea four months ago after seeing people on the streets outside the cafe and wanted to help.

The 33-year-old who owns Granny Mac's in City Road, Cardiff said she heard about restaurants having similar projects wanted to give it a go herself.

Granny Mac’s Cafe

She said: "I’m not from Cardiff and when I started working here, I noticed there’s a lot of homeless people in City Road especially.

She came up with a "Buy a Homeless Person a Meal" idea. The plan involves selling vouchers to the customers -- vouchers for the homeless people.

The coupon price starts from £3.80, where customers can buy a ‘Mini Mac breakfast’ to give to those people who may not have eaten for how many days; and the good thing is the cafe would upgrade it up to a large breakfast for free!

Homeless near the cafe

And according to Leeann, they also offer bacon roll vouchers to hot drinks and different sized meals, so that everyone can buy a voucher that fits within their budget. A concerned person as she is, Leeann said her idea of coming up this plan came up because of her seeing people on the streets outside her cafe, and she wanted to help them.

She said: " I know they [customers] don’t really want to give money to the homeless, they’d rather give them food."

Another concerned citizen named Leeann from Brigend. She also said: "Not everybody’s got £3.80 and I understand that, and I know that people do want to give back to the community, so what I thought I'd do is I’ve just ordered a stand where I’m going to put different vouchers in."

Leeann wanted the community to get involved in helping other people

Rory Logue a part time employee who works in the cafe said that the idea works really well. Saying: "Being on City Road we see people outside all the time. We used to give out soup, but this is something a bit different."

Leeann who also worked in deprived areas and residential homes for people with mental health problems said she wanted the community to get involved in helping other people.

Leeann is also offering her cafe as a free venue for parties especially people with special needs

She said: "I thought let's come up with some ideas to make things a bit different to give back to the community because I like to do charity work and that’s when we came up with the vouchers."

Aside from this, she is also offering her cafe as a free venue for parties especially people with special needs, and the only condition was people should bring their own food.

Thank you, Leann, for your kindness and for you concern! Humanity is still around the corner. Way to go!

“ The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. ”

- Leo Tolstoy