Good business starts with good taste.
Our delicious, premium tea products create training & job opportunities for refugees within the hospitality sector, empowering them shape their own journeys.
EMPOWERING REFUGEES
We believe that everyone in the UK, whether refugees or economic migrants, should get the same chance as all citizens to have a decent quality of life and the opportunity to contribute to our society and its development.
In October 2015, our founder, Pranav Chopra, recognised the difficulties faced by refugees to find employment despite having experience and qualifications in their home countries. Determined to make a difference, Pranav set up a business to offer refugees work experience and the ability to gain a UK reference by selling freshly brewed Chai at London’s local food markets. This venture evolved into NEMI Teas, an award-winning social enterprise tea company that provided employment to refugees at its tea packing facility.
In 2022, NEMI Teas launched and funded TRAMPOLINE Cafe in response to meeting the hospitality labour gap after COVID-19. The cafe operates as a launch pad to help refugees break into the UK hospitality sector.
OUR PARTNERS
In partnership with The Hotel School and Groundwork London, we have developed ‘Changing Journeys’, a 10 week hospitality training programme for refugees, at TRAMPOLINE Cafe. Here, refugees learn essential customer service skills, improve their English language, and build a greater sense of community and belonging in London.
TRAMPOLINE Cafe @ Camden Passage, Angel
In February 2022, we opened TRAMPOLINE Cafe on Camden Passage in Angel, London. From the outset, it looks just like a regular cafe, but TRAMPOLINE is also a social enterprise business that is changing the lives of many.
The cafe solely hires refugees based within the Greater London area, providing them with opportunities to integrate into UK society. TRAMPOLINE also offers a space for refugees to gain hospitality work experience. To date, we have successfully employed 28 refugees at the cafe and have helped place 22 into full-time or part-time positions. Most trainees at TRAMPOLINE Cafe move on to hospitality related jobs after their time with us.
At the Cafe we serve a range of hot and cold drinks, along with Sri Lankan food courtesy of Yogi’s Kitchen who is currently doing a residency on site. We excited to incubate more refugee-run food businesses at TRAMPOLINE and are excited to announce our launch of our second location at 20 Cavendish Square.
Upon completing their training at TRAMPOLINE, refugees are placed into full-time jobs through our employment partner, Thomas Franks and Seasoned, and continue to support them during this transition.
We proudly support, independent suppliers who make a positive impact on the planet and its people, including Toast Ale, Karma Cola, Lemon-aid and Belu Water.
TRAMPOLINE Cafe @ Royal College of Nursing, Central London
In August 2024, we opened our second TRAMPOLINE Cafe in collaboration with the The Royal College of Nursing and Seasoned at 20 Cavendish Square in Central London!
The launch of the second cafe marks a significant milestone for NEMI Teas’ journey to expand its social enterprise café model since the inception of the first TRAMPOLINE Café in Angel in 2022.
The shared ethos of all three organisations sets the stage that will benefit both the customers and our efforts to offer hospitality training and employment opportunities to a greater number of refugees.
We have recruited an experienced coffee professional to operate the Cafe and provide training to the refugees we on-board our training program. We are supported in this through our social enterprise coffee partners, Old Spike Roastery.
OUR PEOPLE
The following case studies show just some of the amazing people who we have supported into full-time employment at our cafes:
ASHKAN P.
Ashkan fled Iran in 2013 and came to London in search of a better life. Since completing our training programme, he has been employed at TRAMPOLINE Angel - first as a Barista, and now as our Cafe Manager!
This film was made as part of a social enterprise case study on our work and is shared with the permission of Bayes University to tell Ashkan’s story.
YOGI S.
Yogi left behind his wife and daughter in Sri Lanka in 2009 to seek refuge in London. Upon being referred by The Hotel School, he worked at TRAMPOLINE Angel in February 2022 and developed his passion for food and cooking.
He now runs a Yogi’s Kitchen pop-up restaurant inside TRAMPOLINE’s Angel site!
Watch his journey here!
ULYANA D.
Ulyana is a trained puppeteer who unfortunately left Ukraine alone in 2022 due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
We have recruited her as a Trainee Barista at our second TRAMPOLINE Cafe inside the Royal College of Nursing building in Central London.
We had a lovely chat with her recently so listen in & find out more about our latest trainee.
