Springvale Cafe's Coffee for a Can drive exceeds expectations

Springvale Cafe barista Jessie Nossiter has had a busy week as part of the Coffee for s Can food drive. Photo/ Lewis Gardner

Springvale Cafe's baristas are used to being busy.

But when their cafe decides to give away free coffees for a week, that's a whole new level.

"We had somebody comment on Facebook that our baristas must be ninjas, which is really nice, so we're calling them our ninja baristas now," Springvale Cafe owner Lyn Crawford said.

The cafe at Springvale Garden Centre been running its annual Coffee for a Can where for five days the cafe gave away a free coffee to anyone who brought in a can of food, with the cans being donated to Women's Refuge.

It's the third year the cafe has run the collection and owner Lyn Crawford said while she hadn't counted the cans yet, it would well exceed last year's 420.

"It's been beyond our expectations, it's just been crazy," she said.

"People think it's amazing and we think it's amazing. We're just blown away by how many cans come in."

Crawford said people were really supportive of campaigns that were about giving.

"To us it's about giving back to the community, it's something we can do.

"People of Whanganui get on board, our staff get on board with it and get excited about it.

"There's a huge amount of support out there for the Women's Refuge. A lot if people bring in more than one can some bring in money as well."

The fruits of Springvale Cafe's Coffee for a Can collection. Photo/ Lewis Gardner

Crawford said the Coffee for Cans collection made for an "extremely busy week" at the cafe.

"The baristas have worked really hard because you can imagine how many coffees on top of what we normally do," she said.

"The baristas have worked hard, the whole team have worked hard."