Freshly brewed coffee is now being served in Ramsay Health Care’s Dudley Private Hospital in the NSW regional town of Orange – with every cup supporting meaningful employment for people with disability.

The coffee cart is a joint initiative between the hospital and not for profit registered NDIS provider Wangarang, which provides supported employment and disability services in the Orange region.

“The aim is to deliver quality coffee to both patients and staff while at the same time creating realworld hospitality opportunities for our participants,” Wangarang CEO Chris Rawlins tells us.

Located in the hospital’s main foyer and trading from 7.30-11am Monday to Friday, the cart is crewed each day by a leader and one of Wangarang’s supported staff, providing employment for five staff in total working across a rotating roster.

Chris explains how the coffee cart came about: “Wangarang has a long history in the region going back more than 60 years with a focus on creating meaningful employment. Historically that has been linked to various local industries – a major employer for us was the Electrolux manufacturing facility but that closed down some years ago. As that kind of industrial work continues to decline, we are actively looking to partner with local organisations to create new pathways for skills development and employment, and one area which is growing here is tourism and hospitality.

“I’m reasonably new in the job myself, and I knew the CEO of Dudley Private when I came into the role and we were spitballing ideas about how we might be able to work together, and he said ‘we’re thinking about a coffee cart, would you like to work with us on that?’ Soon after he left the role and was replaced by interim CEO Jo Brown – she was also supportive of the concept and we’ve progressed from there.

“Essentially the hospital has provided the foyer space, a 15 amp powerpoint and some water connections and left the rest to us. We’ve partnered with a local coffee roaster and hired a crew leader with a background in customer service. And after a few weeks in business we’re extremely pleased with the results – especially for our employees who are learning brand new skills.”

The coffee cart crew are currently pumping out at least 30-40 coffees a day and Chris says, “it’s early days yet and we are hoping it gets a little higher over time. We’ve got all the different milk offerings like soy, oat and chai and we’re about to start stocking muffins and cakes to make it a full café experience. We’ve also just implemented an order-ahead service so people can scan a QR code and we’re exploring some different options for being able to offer delivery to patient beds. Ideally we’d like to get to 50 coffees a day.”

Dudley Private is a relatively small hospital, including around 40 beds, a rehab clinic, fertility clinic and imaging area and while it has its own kitchen facilities for patients, there was no espresso coffee service until now.

“The public hospital in Orange, which is much larger, has a successful café business and I think the CEO thought this would be a good opportunity to provide better amenities for both staff and patients,” Chris explains. “We currently serve about 60:40 staff to patients - staff patronage is critical to our success so we knew the staff would have to like the coffee and for that reason we had to get the quality right.

“Our coffee roaster has conducted several barista training sessions with our team and sent people down to check on what we’re doing and they’re satisfied that the coffee we serve reflects well upon their brand. We’ve also conducted a staff survey at the hospital and the feedback we’ve got shows we’re doing well – generally 4 or 5 stars out of 5.

“And of course, we’re delighted with the fact that the coffee cart is giving our employees the chance to gain practical hospitality skills like barista training and customer service, leading to increased confidence and independence and real employment outcomes.”

Dudley Private Hospital Acting CEO Jo Brown affirms that feedback from staff has been very positive. “We’re all supportive of the initiative – it’s great coffee, and we’re looking forward to seeing it grow.

“I also think it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to partner with Wangarang to support people in our local community. I can’t take the credit as it was my predecessor who initiated it, but I do think it’s an amazing initiative which is providing a service for our staff, patients and visitors while also creating opportunities for people with disability to build skills and confidence in a real workplace environment.”

Wangarang is also working closing with Anson Street School, a specialist disability school in Orange, which has its own barista training scheme in place. “Another motivator for starting up the coffee cart is that it gives people who leave that school a pathway to gain employment with us,” Chris explains. “And looking to the future, we are considering starting up a separate coffee business on our own site.”