It’s no surprise that Westenders love their coffee, but do you ever wonder about the story behind your perfectly brewed latte? Anne Marie Hillan sat down with Craig Johnson, the founder of one of the newest independent gems to grace our patch — Launch Coffee on Cresswell Street, just off Byres Road. She knew right away this wasn’t just another coffee shop — it had a story worth sharing.
Sitting with Craig, I quickly learned that Launch Coffee is not simply a new hospitality venture. It is the public-facing arm of Launch Foods, a not-for-profit business set up in 2018 to try to tackle child hunger in Glasgow. Every penny of profit generated by the café goes directly towards feeding schoolchildren across the city. Launch Foods is Craig’s idea, but he was quick to make it clear — this isn’t a story about him, it’s about Launch’s mission.
Craig explained that the idea for Launch Foods came after watching two news reports almost back-to-back: one highlighting the scale of food waste in society, the other revealing how many children in Scotland were going hungry every day. Seeing those two realities side by side made the disconnect impossible to ignore. Craig, like many, feels passionately that children in Scotland should not be going hungry — and he set out to change that.
A Warm Welcome at Launch
Launch Coffee more than earns its place as a go-to stop in the West End, aside from its important mission, it truly is a great café. The interior is warm and welcoming, the coffee is excellent, and the counter is filled with freshly baked cakes, pastries, and savoury options. I can personally recommend the caramel shortcake and the homemade cookies — I have tried both. They are fabulous. It is open seven days a week and is already a popular haunt.
Craig told me that this matters deeply to him. Launch Coffee was never meant to feel like a charity café or a concept space. It is a proper local business, employing local people, operating to ambitious standards, and competing on quality alone. The cakes and pastries are baked fresh every day by the Launch team in their Anniesland kitchen. People come in because they want to, not because they feel they should. Craig has over 20 years’ experience working in the banking sector, and he knows that the business must be a flourishing entity in itself.
The fact that the café funds the feeding of children is not hidden, but it is also not used as a hook. Craig wants people to come for the coffee first. If the café didn’t stand up in its own right, the model would not work. A phrase he uses repeatedly is that he wants this to be a good business, but a good business that does great things.
Using Food Efficiently
So how does it work? Craig tells me that each week, Launch’s American-style food truck visits seven primary schools across Glasgow, including Govan, Govanhill, Knightswood, Townhead and Haghill. At the end of the school day, the truck arrives and children queue in exactly the same way they would at any regular food van. They choose between two hot meal options and receive fruit, a small treat, and a bottle of water. No money changes hands.
Every child in the school can have the fun of queuing for their hot meal at the food truck in the playground. There is no means testing. No assessment, judgement or stigma. The children have all been given information about food waste and know that using food efficiently is good for the planet. At Launch, the children are treated as customers. They line up, make their choices, and know they’re helping to prevent good food from going to waste. The experience is intentionally designed to feel completely normal.
Launch Foods works with a network of valued food and drink partners including Simon Howie (The Scottish Butcher), Brakes, the University of Strathclyde and Highland Spring — all help make this possible. These partnerships allow the organisation to rescue and source high-quality surplus produce and turn it into nutritious, balanced meals for children across the city. Craig was clear that the quality of the food matters. These are not leftover meals or emergency snacks. The food provided must be nourishing, filling and appropriate for growing children. Dietary requirements are taken seriously and built into the process.
One Million Free Meals
Again and again, the conversation moves away from personal background and back to the work of Launch — and to a strong belief that none of this should be necessary in the first place. There are no photographs of Craig accompanying this article by design. That absence is intentional. Craig is determined that the spotlight stays firmly on the mission, not the man behind it.
Set up in 2018, Launch Foods now feeds over 300 children every day and has provided — and this is incredible — more than one million free meals to children across Glasgow. It is a striking figure, but one Craig speaks about with clear discomfort rather than pride. The scale of that number reflects not just the reach of Launch Foods, but the depth and persistence of the problem it exists to address. Eight years on, the need has not diminished. Schools across the city, across Scotland and the UK have contacted Craig hoping Launch might come to them too — a reflection of just how deep the concern about child hunger runs.
Beyond the trucks themselves, Launch also works with corporate partners to broaden children’s experiences beyond their immediate environments. Primary school pupils from some of Glasgow’s most deprived areas have visited Barratt Homes show homes, Barclays Bank headquarters and Launch Coffee itself. These visits are not formal learning opportunities. They are about exposure — allowing children to feel comfortable in spaces they may never otherwise enter, and quietly expand their sense of what is possible.
And YOU can Help
I am taken aback by the scale of what they are doing. How do they manage it? Craig advises that Launch Foods employs nine people and is supported by ongoing corporate volunteering, with teams from large organisations regularly spending afternoons helping on the food trucks. This help is invaluable. Craig smiled as he explained that once a company volunteers once, they always return. Seeing the children’s reactions first-hand tends to leave a lasting impression.
Craig was clear that while Launch Foods exists to respond to child hunger, it should never be viewed as the solution to it. The responsibility for ensuring that children are fed properly — consistently, nutritiously and without stigma — sits with government, both local and central. Launch Foods does not exist because the problem is unsolvable, but because systems have failed to prevent it. Craig spoke openly about his frustration that organisations like Launch are needed at all. Their work is carried out with determination and care, but also with deep disappointment that, in a modern and wealthy country, this level of intervention is still necessary.
How can we help, I asked him. Launch Foods, of course, has a JustGiving page where anyone can donate to support their work. Businesses can also adopt Launch as their charity, and people can volunteer on a corporate or individual basis.
And of course, if you or someone you know could help them with more food vans meaning they could feed more children, that would be amazing. But if you live, study or work in the West End and enjoy good coffee and well-made food, you can just make Launch Coffee part of your routine. Not because it is doing good — though it absolutely is — but because it is genuinely a great independent coffee shop where everything is freshly made locally.
Coffee and Cake for a Great Cause
By the time our conversation ended, the café had filled and emptied several times. Coffees were poured. Cakes were chosen. Conversations flowed. It felt exactly as a good local coffee shop should. And that, Craig told me, is how most people can best support Launch Foods. The difference is that every coffee, every cake, and every cookie helps feed a child in Glasgow — a child who might otherwise be going hungry.
Talking to Craig was inspiring. Unusually for an interview, I came away knowing little about Craig himself — but, just as he intended, I learned a great deal about Launch Foods. He spoke with real passion, commitment, and raw emotion about the work of Launch. Seeing hungry children being fed by the Launch food truck has clearly had a profound impact on him.
So, I learned that Launch Foods is making a real difference. One million free nutritious meals have been distributed — that says it all. But I also learned that Launch Coffee Shop is in itself a high-quality, well-run independent coffee shop and one that is well worth visiting just for the excellent coffee, cakes, and pastries. And just as Craig wants it to be, an incredibly good local business that is doing really great things.
Launch Coffee
58 Cresswell St, G12 8BY
donate.justgiving.com/charity/launchfoodsfoundation
