Alleyn's to drink coffee with a conscience

Alleyn's School is to use Redemption Roasters, a social enterprise co-founded by Old Boy Ted Rosner, as its sole coffee supplier.

All the coffee supply is roasted by offenders in prison, and the company trains prisoners and helps them gain employment.

Ted Rosner, Alleyn’s Old Boy who left Alleyn’s in 2006, co-founded the bijoux chain of coffee shops which now extends six shops across London, with the latest having just opened nearby in Dulwich Village.

The chain is a social enterprise whose mission is to reduce reoffending rates among prisoners.

The company runs an industrial-scale roastery at HMP The Mount, coffee academies in HMP Bullingdon, Spring Hill, and Wormwood Scrubs, as well as a coffee school in Containerville, London.

The academy at HMP Aylesbury was rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.

In addition to the roastery and the barista and hospitality skills the academies teach offenders, they also assist their graduates reintegrate into society by helping them find work in either their own coffee shops, or with their wholesale clients.

The enterprise plans to open more academies in prisons and work with private justice providers, councils, youth centres, and job centres.

With statistics showing that prisoners are 50% more likely to reoffend if they leave prison without skills and a job, Alleyn's couldn’t be happier doing business with such a great employer and force for good.