Java House Marks 24th Anniversary Through Social Impact Initiatives
Founded in 1999 with the aim of introducing a gourmet coffee-drinking experience to Kenya, Java House has grown to become one of the leading casual American diner-style restaurant brands in East Africa. Java has outlets in 14 cities across 3 countries in East Africa providing exceptional casual dining experience to a growing customer base. Java House has birthed two sister brands, Planet Yoghurt, a healthy and tasty frozen yoghurt store, and 360 Degrees Pizza, a unique homage to the old Vera Pizza Napolitano traditions infused with a contemporary take. Through the Java Foundation, Java House is giving back to society by sourcing responsibly and supporting farmers, supporting local artists, and feeding school children in partnership with Food For Education as Ker Mogallo reports.
Java House has marked its 24th anniversary through a series of social impact initiatives to benefit hundreds of school-going pupils through its Java Foundation.
The Java Foundation currently supports over 2500 school going children with daily lunches at Ngunyumu Primary School and Gatina Primary School in Nairobi County supported by its partners Stanbic Bank and Uni Industries.
Speaking at the Ngunyumu, Java House CEO, Priscilla Gathungu said “we wanted to mark our anniversary this year by recognising some of our important milestones over the years. This feeding program in partnership with Food for Education has allowed us to invest in a meaningful way long term to children from these communities and in some ways their families.
Feeding isn’t just the daily lunches, it’s the reduced absenteeism of pupils recorded in the schools we partner with. Its better focus resulting in better performance. Its creating aspiration of what can be through bringing some members of the community to events such as today to inspire them through their own stories of triumph. What is saddest for us but also inspiring to hear, is that often the students split half their meals to share with their family members at home who don’t enjoy such access.
It’s also recognising that this would not be possible without our 14,000 guests that we serve every day and that this allows the pupils to show up meaningfully for themselves and their communities”.
Speaking on behalf of other headteachers from the community who graced the event in support, the CSO from the area Ms Veronica Kiama emphasised the practical impact of daily feeding to the pupils and alluded to her future visits to Java being more meaningful after this interaction ‘I sometimes go to java House as a customer and I sometimes look at the menu and pick something not knowing that a cup of Java contributes something to bringing some joy to a child.
Food for Education fundraising manager Fayruz Adan thanked Java House for their support. Together we’ve been able to provide over 184,000 meals in the last year. We are thrilled to continue this journey towards eradicating classroom hunger.
On their part, in addition to feeding, Stanbic Bank has donated computers and equipped the computer lab at Gatina Primary School, while Uni Industries has donated kitchen and cooking equipment.
