Just Grounds Espresso Bar and Cafe

IF I was to tell you that you could help change the lives of people in third world countries by sitting down with a ridiculously good cup of coffee, you would probably tell me I’ve had too much of it.

I admit it does seem a bit far-fetched, but here in Just Grounds Café, I’m smiling because I know that I am helping change someone’s life for the better. As I walk through the café to the courtyard garden I hear the hiss of steam escaping from the coffee machine, and I think about how it all started.

My father Reverend Mark Muss had an idea a couple of years ago to open a café that sells only Fairtrade tea and coffee. At first it was only a dream, but that dream became reality when he mentioned it to the Uniting Church.

So about a year later, and after much planning, the Uniting Church bought a shop with an outdoor area in Magellan Street, Lismore. Over the process of a couple of months, it went from a run-down store in Lismore’s CBD to a brand new café with a courtyard garden.

I remember walking through the empty store gazing at the chalk outlines of where the counters would go. And I remember being out the back when the gardens had just been planted.

“I wanted to create a place where Fairtrade items and information would be accessible for the local community,” Mark Muss said when asked what his vision for the café was in the early days. “A place where people could come and meet, and where people could help make change in third world countries.”

As I reach the courtyard I sit down next to the small water fountain and gaze at the murals on the walls.

“You know,” I say to the cherub, “If there is any place for you to be, it’s here.” He just dozes peacefully on.

I guess he agrees.