Pausa Cafè

Pausa Café is a social cooperative founded in 2004, dedicated to providing social and professional reintegration opportunities for prisoners and former inmates in Italian penitentiaries. The cooperative core idea is to establish agri-food production centers that ensures organoleptic excellence, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability, embodying the philosophy of producing food that is “Good, Sustainable, and Fair.”
The cooperative’s operations begin intra moenia (inside prison walls), where Pausa Café established the Social Coffee Roastery at the Turin Correctional Facility and the Social Bakery at the Alessandria San Michele Prison. These efforts continue extra moenia (outside prison walls), where inmates are supported in their professional development in the food service activities promoted by Pausa Café under the guidance of the cooperative’s team of professionals and social workers.
Pausa Café also fosters international partnerships among producers, processors, and consumers. Since its inception, the cooperative has been active in Central America, collaborating with indigenous coffee-growing communities.
Rigenera’s support is directed to the establishment of the “Eco Bistrò Dal Basso”, a project launched by Pausa Café at the “Bruno Caccia” Courthouse in Turin. This initiative will offer a wide range of services, including a coffee bar, pastry shop, gastronomy and fresh pasta production, restaurant services, and an outdoor terrace café.