The last time we saw Mike Brown in Part II of our story, he was heading over to visit Nadine Doyle at The Hacienda Roasting Company to pitch his idea of Coffee4Kids: an initiative born of his desire to help support Food4KidsWR. He still needs to source the coffee and The Hacienda Roasting Company may be able to help…
As Mike describes it, “I’d barely got the first sentence out of my mouth when Nadine said “I’m in. Let’s work together to figure this out.””
Nadine confirms Mike’s story. “As soon as Mike described what he wanted to do, I knew I wanted to be part of it. Really, why wouldn’t we do this? Why wouldn’t we help out a charity that we all believe in?”
How the Roasting Company got Started
The Doyle family originally purchased their coffee roaster with the intention of launching a stand-alone coffee shop business. Instead their coffee became an integral part of the experience of being a guest at a Hacienda event.
“Everyone who comes here adores the coffee and says it’s amazing,” says Nadine. “Even our staff come back from vacations saying how much they missed the coffee here.”
Nadine’s uncle roasts all the coffee. He has developed several blends with a wide appeal, after years spent getting feedback from staff and guests about smoothness, acidity, and taste. Their most popular blend is the Hacienda blend. In fact, Nadine was working in the building for ten years before she tried any of the others. But Mike’s first step was to try them all. He had tested blends from any number of coffee roasters around the province, but hadn’t yet found what he was looking for. It was important to him that Coffee4Kids sell quality coffee that would appeal to the majority of coffee drinkers. Remembering that cup of coffee from the wedding months earlier, Mike felt a spark of hope. The Hacienda Roasting Company didn’t disappoint.
“Each blend provides a smooth, balanced, just really good tasting cup of coffee.”
Coffee4Kids had found its Coffee
Nadine and Mike quickly worked out the plan: The Hacienda Roasting Company would roast the coffee for Mike to sell through Coffee4Kids, and all of the profits would go to Food4KidsWR.
They started strong. Between October 2019 and January 2020, they sold hundreds of bags and the first cheque Mike presented to Food4KidsWR was for $2500.00.
But then COVID19 hit. Businesses stopped buying coffee for their empty offices, and Coffee4Kids hadn’t been established to the point where enough individuals were purchasing coffee for their homes.
Now Mike is putting all of his efforts into increasing the visibility of Coffee4Kids, and has set a goal of selling 10,000 bags of coffee by December 31.
How Can You Help?
To help Food4KidsWR directly, contact Kelly-Sue about volunteering to package food, or donate food items (always call first to find out what’s needed), or make a monthly or one-time donation.
And of course, you can help Coffee4Kids reach their goal of selling 10,000 bags by December 31, by ordering coffee for your home or business through Coffee4Kids.ca. Every purchase makes a difference to a child in our Region.
Where’s the Catch?
It almost seems too good to be true: buy coffee for our homes and offices (which most of us buy anyway) and feed children in the process. Where’s the catch?
“It’s because Nadine and Mike don’t take any of the profit,” explains Kelly-Sue. “The profit all goes directly to buying food for the kids with Mike covering expenses like the cost of the Coffee4Kids website, and the labour to package the coffee. Mike is this incredible businessman with a huge philanthropic side which he’s poured into Coffee4Kids, and Nadine is hugely committed to Coffee4Kids. Neither one is looking to profit from this; it’s all social profit.”
In the end, there is no catch. Each bag of perfectly roasted Coffee4Kids coffee provides one bag of food to a child struggling with food insecurity. It’s a simple equation where everyone wins.
