Go Beyond Coffee, the initiative relaunched by the youth of the Focolare Movement in Milan: having obtained a special price from a wholesale distributor, they designed and produced the labels with the guidelines of the activity and the logo of the 2018 Genfest.

A few months ago, in Milan, the Youth for a United World found themselves thinking together about initiatives that could look to the 2018 Genfest in Manila, in the Philippines. That’s how they thought of ​​selling coffee, as they did for the 2012 Genfest in Budapest. Then they decided to allocate the funds obtained for the organization of the Genfest, the trip to Manila for those coming from the most distant countries and to support the Filipino population, hit by typhoon Vinta last December.

One of the young people in Milan says that the idea came about when “we asked ourselves how to spread the idea of ​​the Genfest here in our area. Being an event that tries to promote fraternity among people, understood as material and interpersonal relationships, it seemed to us that one of the elements that most represented this desire to socialize, to be together and at the same time to share, in our culture, were the drink and the ritual of coffee: that break time that, within one’s day, becomes an opportunity for exchange and sharing”.

This time it was easier than in 2012, because they already had contacts. After deciding together what to do, they contacted the supplier and had 4,000 coffee packets sent to the central warehouse in Milan within a month. Meanwhile, in the various territories of the region about twenty people made their homes available for storage.

The process of labeling is done by them and “has become an opportunity to dine together, see each other […] We did it here in Milan, but also in the other areas where young people and families are helping us. Finally, this activity has created many opportunities to visit people we had not seen in a long time”.

For more information: caffe2018manila@gmail.com.