Paying it forward with a cup of coffee

Rebecca Vardon is greeted every morning by four homeless people as she opens the doors to her Bridge Street cafe.

Ready for a hot coffee and breakfast, they know they are welcome in Ms Vardon's company.

But welcoming and feeding them personally was not enough for Ms Vardon, who wanted them to know they were also appreciated by the community.

So the staff at Jack Piper's Cafe have jumped on board the snowballing trend of "suspended coffee", an Italian tradition that has been endorsed by cafes around the world.

The system allows customers to pay for extra "suspended coffees", and those down on their luck can visit later and ask if any coffees are available to drink.

To prevent any fradulent caffeination, Ms Vardon has opted to distribute the suspended coffees by means of vouchers given to accredited services such as ac.care and the Salvation Army.

And with every suspended coffee comes a substantial hot meal. "We don't offer it to anyone unless we know them or they have a voucher," she said.

"It doesn't have to be homeless people, but even families that are less fortunate.

"That's why we're doing the vouchers."

Ac.care chief executive officer Rob Foggo said the charity group stood behind the voucher system in Murray Bridge.

"Sometimes it's the care of a stranger that helps someone going through a hard time and makes a difference to their life," he said.

"Suspended coffee at Jack Piper's is a great initiative and we are really excited and proud to learn it is happening in Murray Bridge."

Ms Vardon is also a success story of the kindness of strangers, and sees her efforts as a means of paying forward the help she received in her youth.

"I was one of those kids," she said.

"I wasn't homeless but I was unfortunate.

"I was lucky enough to have people reach out to help me."

According to Ms Vardon, the team promotes the system to encourage people to reach out of their comfort zones and be involved in the community.

"We need to accept those (less fortunate) people," she said.

"We don't know what brought them to those circumstances in the first place and we shouldn't be judgmental."