Manager Kym Lister said the event is part of Café Smart, a charity which will see participating WA cafes donate $1 from the sale of coffees towards homelessness on the day.

“I read it in the paper and thought it was something that we would like to get involved in. Homelessness in Busselton is there for all of us to see and it is something that we can help out easily through selling coffee,” Kym said.

“The donations are for local homelessness, so the money doesn’t just go to organisations where you have to make appointments to help. It helps people on a different level, because at the moment it is hard to get help and funding for certain people.”

Various cafes in the metropolitan and the South West regions have signed up, but Kym is inviting other cafes in the Busselton district to take up the challenge and donate.

“We want to raise as much as possible. We are probably sitting on around 250 coffees a day at the moment – 100 coffees in a day is $100, so if every café can donate something towards it, that would be wonderful,” she said.

“Obviously if we can get as many people together to buy coffees and also make a side donation, it will help immensely. Customers can come in and make a donation anytime.”

Café Smart will take place during National Homeless Persons’ Week and is making its Western Australian debut this year after successfully raising $1.6 million in the Eastern States since 2008.

“We want to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness rather than rely on the Government or an established fund,” Café Smart’s project director Tom Tolchard said.

“One hundred per cent of money raised is returned to homelessness projects. We don’t read a lot about homelessness in mainstream media and the government doesn’t do a very good job at combating it. Through positive consumerism, we want to raise awareness to the problem which affects all of us and all of our communities.”

According to Australian homelessness organisation Street Smart, every night across Australia, more than 100,000 people are homeless, 14,000 sleep rough and nearly half of all homeless are under the age of 25.