How Irish social initiative is helping consumers stamp out world hunger
EVER got that free coffee and wondered if you really needed it? Stampify lets you donate it to help fight world hunger.
Set up by six former Trinity College classmates, the nonprofit works by providing customers with ‘Stampify’ loyalty cards from participating business partners.
Partners include Dublin venues Pig and Heifer, Curious Monkey Coffee Company, Third Space Cafe, Caracas Cafe, Flax and Beets, Dublin Barista School, 9th Degree, Bestseller, Arctic Stone and Urban Health.
Customers can mix and match stamps from partners to complete the card. Once returned or ‘cashed in’ at a participating business, the cafe makes a donation to international aid charity Mary’s Meals.
For every completed card, a child will be fed for a week in their place of education in some of the world’s most deprived countries. “We started working on this idea about a year-and-a-half ago,” Conor Leen, co-founder of Stampify, said. “After Christmas 2017 we really knuckled down and launched in October 2018,” the Tullamore native said. For now the initiative is aiding children in countries such as Zambia, India and Malawi.
The six friends, all of whom work full-time outside of their Stampify roles, are looking to
bring the initiative back to Ireland in the medium term.
“We chose international aid in the developing world initially as you could supply more meals for the same cost [than in Ireland], so it will have a greater impact,” Mr Leen said.
Feedback from consumers has been “very positive”, and the card is mainly available in cafes around Dublin.
The group, none of whom is paid for the work, plans to expand the initiative around Ireland in the coming months.