Empowering Deaf Baristas in Cape Town with I Love Coffee Group

In South Africa, 70-80% of Deaf adults are unemployed: a statistic that one coffee company has set out to change.

BY DANIEL MURAGA
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Photos courtesy of I Love Coffee Group

What to know:

• About 20% of the South African population suffers from a range of hearing loss, from mild to total deafness, but 70-80% of Deaf adults in South Africa are unemployed
• Founded in 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa, I Love Coffee Group is working to empower the Deaf community, with most of its workforce comprised of Deaf and hard of hearing individuals

What began as a single coffee shop with a powerful purpose has grown into an award-winning social enterprise that has now employed hundreds of Deaf baristas across a decade of impact. We are talking about I Love Coffee Group, a South African café and roasting company that promotes inclusion of Deaf people in employment and sees deafness not as a disability, but a “different human experience.” 

We’ve previously covered how coffee companies in China are working to make employment more inclusive for the Deaf community: a long-needed movement that’s slowly but surely spreading across the globe. According to the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), about 20% of the South African population suffers from a range of hearing loss, from mild to total deafness—equating to around 12.4 million people.

At the same time, between 70% and 80% of Deaf adults in the country are unemployed, often facing significant social and economic barriers including what Dirk Venter, founder of South African organization DEAF Friendly, calls the “dinner table syndrome.” The term refers to a metaphorical situation where everyone at a dinner table is speaking to one other, but Deaf people are excluded from the conversation—a sense of exclusion that extends into employment. Luckily, organizations like I Love Coffee Group are using coffee to help combat this.

Since launching in 2016, I Love Coffee Group has worked to boost the living standards for the Deaf by creating sustainable employment opportunities through its cafés, roastery, and training programs. The business is the first in South Africa to employ a large number of Deaf staff, and Deaf or hard of hearing individuals constitute the majority of the company’s workforce (about 70%).

Today, the business employs and trains around 60 Deaf staff members and trainees, and reinvests 25% of its gross profit into job creation efforts. It has also grown from a single coffee shop into an award-winning Level 1 B-BBEE company, creating opportunities both in Cape Town, South Africa, and London, England. 

Celebrating 500,000 working hours

This year, I Love Coffee Group is celebrating 500,000 hours of employment for its Deaf employees. With this, the company has minted award-winning baristas and assumed an international outlook by expanding to other continents. 

“What started as a single coffee shop in a gym grew from a vision to create exceptional coffee and meaningful opportunities for the deaf community,” says Gary Hopkins, co-founder of I Love Coffee, shared with South African news outlet Biz Community. “While 500,000 Deaf working hours is a significant milestone, the real achievement is the lives behind that number—careers built, families supported, and greater independence created. That’s the impact we set out to make.” 

After entering the U.K. market in 2022, I Love Coffee was given an opportunity by WeWork to have their baristas work at four co-working spaces, starting in January of 2023. Since then, the company has established a U.K. office and developed calculated partnerships to support further international expansion. Along the way, its brilliant baristas have earned industry acknowledgment, while its training programs continue opening more doors for Deaf workers seeking evocative careers.

A journey not without challenges

In its nascent stages, I Love Coffee was challenged to the core—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the business faced severe disruption and was forced to shut down its operations threatening a progress that had taken years to build. However, the company did not close permanently. It diversified into coffee roasting and built its flagship café hub, creating a powerful springboard for future growth and expansion. 

“After five years of building and scaling our cafés, the pandemic tested everything we had built,” says Mike Morritt-Smith, co-founder of I Love Coffee.  According to Mike, COVID-19 brought massive challenges but also pushed the business to take innovative steps toward greater sustainability, like venturing into roasting, expanding their business into the U.K. market, establishing a coffee training academy, and building the fundamentals for international growth. 

“We’ve never viewed inclusion as a program or initiative,” co-founder Gary Hopkins says. “It’s simply part of who we are.” According to Gary, I Love Coffee’s cafés, roastery, and training programs are established around the belief that, although talent may exist everywhere, opportunity (or employment) does not. The company has, over the past ten years, shown that businesses can succeed commercially and still be socially impactful. 

As I Love Coffee Group celebrates its ten-year anniversary, it remains true and focused on its long-term vision. The company is not only creating thriving environments where the Deaf community can find happiness while working and building sustainable careers, but also setting a high standard for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the coffee and hospitality industry. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Muraga (he/him) is a communications expert, researcher, writer, and editor based in Kenya with over 10 years of experience in the industry. His mission is to highlight Africa’s contributions to the realms of science, technology, innovation, culture, food, and related fields. He has done extensive research and written widely in the coffee niche for Sprudge Media, as well as in related areas for Life & Thyme and CQ Researcher, among others. When not writing, he is always outdoors communing with nature. You can find him on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.

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