Costa Foundation

Building schools and futures

The farmers who grow coffee around the world are an essential part of our business – we couldn’t keep inspiring the world to love great coffee without them! However, we know that many coffee-growing communities are in remote rural areas in some of the world’s poorest countries, and children in these communities often have little or no access to education.

The mission of the Costa Foundation is to fund schools and school projects in coffee-growing communities which provide the opportunity to access a safe, quality education. The charity does this by:

• Building new schools or extending existing ones

• Investing in water supplies and providing electricity

• Furnishing the new buildings

• Providing computers and other essential technology

• Building toilets and teacher accommodation

• Promoting gender equality

• Developing land for students to grow crops.

Change a child's life story

Education is the key to changing children’s life stories, so we're working hard to build quality schools. They are built in some of the world’s most remote communities, with locations carefully chosen to provide support where it is most needed.

The Costa Foundation supports these communities without expecting anything in return, which means we are often helping farmers in areas where we are not able to buy coffee. We don’t do things by halves, and we definitely don’t do average. Our fundraising builds brilliant schools for amazing young people.

10 different countries across the coffee belt now benefit from a Costa Foundation school project, including Colombia, Uganda and Vietnam. We’re really proud of all that the charity has achieved so far and are looking forward to changing the life stories of even more children in the future.

Costa Coffee Malta and The Sigma Foundation unite to fund schools and sustainability in Ethiopia

In order to raise money for the Costa Foundation to buy water-saving equipment for two schools in Ethiopia, Costa Coffee Malta and The Sigma Foundation will work together. In order to generate money for the construction of a school in Bonga, Ethiopia, Keith Marshall, the founder of the Sigma Foundation, and a team of wonderful people led an expedition to Santiago de Compostela in May 2022 that included Christina Galea, CEO of Costa Coffee Malta.

Through this first collaboration the idea of bringing both foundations together was born since the purpose of all involved was clearly totally aligned, that of providing education to those less fortunate, it just so happens that these countries are also very often coffee growing communities which Costa Coffee wishes to support and ensure sustainability.

Our Events

First event: Meeting and screening of "Dukale's dream" documentary

As part of this first event, we also started collecting funds, and we raised €280 for the Costa Foundation, but most importantly, we engaged with the team to understand that each one of us can make a great impact on the lives of many people.

Second event: The Costa Team BBQ

On a Summer night, the Costa barbeque was a real success, with €1200 raised and almost 100 participants, including staff members, family, and friends, all gathered for a dinner prepared and served by the management, all in aid of the Costa Foundation.

Third event: Harry Potter Quiz Night

Fans of Harry Potter gathered for the themed quiz. Upon enrollment, everyone chose one of the four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin, each associated with its own drink. We had a well-matched competition, and teams with the highest scores competed in a bonus final round to determine the winner. All of the €560 in registration money for the event was collected as a donation to the Costa Foundation.

Fourth event: Kids Activity Day

A lovely day with the little ones was enjoyed at the Kids Activity event, which was organized into two parts: The first part showed kids dealing with crafts to be created using coffee beans and ground coffee. The second consisted of showing them how to do the Frappés and frothing milk so they could do it themselves. In addition to the lovely day spent, during the Kids Activity Day organized in aid of the Costa Foundation, another €130 was collected.

Fifth event: Football Tournament

With the Costa football tournament, teams from Costa outlets, head office, and more challenged themselves against each other in a five-a-side football tournament. Congratulations to the Departures and Arrivals team for winning the tournament, and a huge thanks to all the participants of this event, which has enabled us to collect €350 in aid of the Costa Foundation.