TeamBrack
Benjamin Tan is the founder of Rickshaw Coffee, an enterprise focused on transforming communities through coffee. His interest started brewing from beans to coffee when he was a young Barista, working to pay off his studies. It was where he perfected his skills in coffee making. Slowly was a passion for community which grew with every cup of coffee he served as he interacted with people from all walks of life. Eventually, he pursued to develop communities in Singapore using Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) enabling ground up movements amongst informal groups, grassroot organizations, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and ministries.
Both coffee and community blended when a close friend, Lee, share his story of feeling a rejection by society after serving his imprisonment. Lee was contemplating to return to a life of crime, peddling contraband cigarettes on his bicycle once more. An unfortunate passing of his mother hindered him and he vowed to change which led to Benjamin starting Rickshaw Coffee to empower Lee to use his abilities to engage people and help others in the community, one cup at a time.
We are working in partnership with Air Amber to run L!VE Cafe located at 150A Pandan Gardens of St Luke Eldercare Centre (Ayer Rajar Community Centre). We are innovating new methods of engaging communities one of which is a a full day coffee workshop to co-create a “Community Blend”, Participants get to share a moment peddling a senior on a Rickshaw to source for ingredients and roast their own coffee together. They will explore neighbourhood wet markets and through this process understand how every bean counts in their communities to make that perfect cup of coffee of their own.