If you had told us six weeks ago what the Gangstar Events calendar would look like, we probably would have laughed. At the time, we were focused on the usual rhythm of the work: opening the café, serving customers, supporting trainees, and making sure the small things that keep a social enterprise running happened every day. Then the events started coming in. Conferences, school shows, fundraising events, family breakfasts, prison seminars, church gatherings, community walks, and workshops. Different venues, different audiences, different challenges.
Looking back now, what feels most remarkable is not the number of events we’ve delivered, but the fact that the team has managed to do all of this while continuing to show up faithfully in the day-to-day work of Gangstar Café.
Over the past six weeks alone, Gangstar Events has had the privilege of serving an incredible range of partners across Cape Town. From supporting the Grace Primary School school show, multiple Joshua Generation Church conference days, and a prison seminar with Hillsong, to partnering with organisations such as TYLT (Training Youth Leaders Together), Life Child, Durbanville Baptist Church, Lighthouse Church Parow, and Love Cities, the team has catered for and served communities in Observatory, Parow, Sea Point, Century City, Durbanville, Mowbray, and beyond.
Collectively, these events had the opportunity to serve well over 8,000 attendees, with individual gatherings ranging from intimate breakfasts of 30 to 100 guests through to large-scale conferences and community events attended by between 600 and 1,500 people. Each event represented far more than a catering opportunity. Every booking created real workplace exposure, training, and income-generating opportunities for people rebuilding their lives and gaining valuable employment experience. As we reflect on this busy season, we are deeply grateful to every school, church, non-profit, corporate partner, and community organisation that entrusted us with their event, because their support is helping create opportunities that extend far beyond the event itself.
The events themselves tell one story. In just a few short weeks, our team has worked across churches, schools, NGOs, and corporate organisations throughout Cape Town. Every event required flexibility, preparation, early mornings, long days, and the ability to adapt when things didn’t go according to plan. But behind the logistics, coffee machines, catering tables, and event checklists is another story, and it’s the story that matters most.
Every single event we’ve delivered over this period has created work experience opportunities for young people at risk and for individuals rebuilding their lives after incarceration. For many of the people who come through our programme, the biggest challenge isn’t willingness to work. It’s getting the opportunity to prove themselves. Employers often ask for experience, but finding a place that will give someone that first opportunity can be incredibly difficult.
That’s where these events become about so much more than events. Every shift is a chance to learn. Every event provides an opportunity to practise customer service, work alongside a team, build confidence, develop professional habits, and gain the kind of experience that can be included on a CV and spoken about in an interview.
Recently we’ve found ourselves facing what is, admittedly, a difficult operational challenge. We’ve been running out of casual staff.
Not because people are leaving, but because they’re finding jobs. Again and again, team members who started by doing work experience shifts and casual event work have moved into permanent employment elsewhere. Each time it happens, we’re thrilled for them, even while we’re scrambling to recruit and train new casual team members to take their place.
It’s the kind of problem every social enterprise hopes to have.
One of those stories belongs to a young man that graduated from our Barista training at the start of the year, who recently secured a position at Flatmountain Café in Woodstock after spending time gaining experience through Gangstar Events and Gangstar Café.
When we congratulated him on his new role, he told us: “It’s really a good place, it’s like Gangstar Café. They’ve got love here. It’s really good working here.” A little later he added: “They loved my job. I told them I’m coming from Gangstar.”
And perhaps the words that meant the most to our team: “Thanks for everything the Message and the Team.”
Those messages are a reminder that success isn’t only measured by the number of events completed or customers served. Success is measured by people moving forward. It’s measured by confidence gained, references earned, interviews secured, and jobs found and hope built in Jesus.
As we look back on the last six weeks, we’re proud of every event we’ve delivered. But we’re even more proud of the people who have stepped into opportunities, grown in confidence, and taken the next step in their employment journey. The events may only last a day, but the opportunities they create can change the course of someone’s future. And that’s work worth celebrating.
