April 1, 2020 was our five year anniversary. We were supposed to be high fiving and hugging you all. Then the pandemic hit and shut the doors on March 19 awaiting for the right time to return. (That date is still be determined, but expect something soon).
We have tried to keep it festive and impactful as we wait to reopen. Here is what we have been doing the last two months.
The Layoff. The hardest thing we did was having to lay off our baristas. They have been the most gracious staff a company could hope for. They started a fund to help them through their layoff and the inconsistency of receiving unemployment. If you feel led, you can donate to that fund here.
Healthcare Bags. The first thing we did to still have impact in the midst of this came out of a brainstorm with Madison Bush at the Point App. This led our sister entity, Roosevelt Coffee Roasters to get ahead of the crisis and provide coffee for healthcare professionals on the frontlines of COVID-19. We decided for every bag of coffee bought we would donate a bag of coffee. You have been incredible!
To date we have surpassed donating 1800 bags! That means we donated $21,975 of coffee! That is amazing. The notes you have written in your checkout cart have been printed and one has been taped on every single bag we have given away. Thank you.
WAITT Campaign. In late March Kenny started dialoguing with Joe DeLoss (Hot Chicken Takeover) about a campaign to feed the hungry with Ryan Vesler (Homage). After some bumps in the road Jeni’s and Pelatonia jumped in and the We Are All In This Together Campaign launched. In one week you were mind blowing. You set the tone for what Columbus would do to bless Columbus in this time. In that week you pushed that campaign to over $150,000. Once the campaign ended all kinds of incredible people joined in including Can’t Stop Columbus. At the time of this post this had resulted in the following:
Annual Report. Then April hit and the schedule would have had us having an anniversary party. That was not to be. But, we debuted this beautiful five year infographic designed by Allison Hess to show what you support, who you support, how much we’ve given because of you, how many of you have engaged our mission by walking in our doors, and a picture of the community you have birthed at The Roosevelt.
New Elite Coffee. To celebrate our anniversary with something unique the roaster debuted its most elite offering to date, the Nicaragua Don Roger and Isabell Tropical Fruit Symphony from the Las Mercedes farm. From the roaster site:
This highly sought after coffee is the culmination of years of study and first hand experience searching for the best practice to grow elite coffee. Non profit importer, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, in partnership with growers Don Roger and Isabel have brought us this rare Natural processed Nicaraguan Coffee.
This 3 time award winning coffee is delicious however you prefer to drink your coffee. Look forward to layers of complexity from sweet pineapple to mango and peach. This is a very satisfying coffee we are honored to share with you!
It won’t be here long, so buy it up here.
Anniversary Shirt. Then, inspired by Alison’s artwork shed designed our first original shirt in a year!. It’s beautiful and clearly communicates our mission to renewal and our mission statement.
This is only available online until May 29
More to Come. There will be a relaunch date announced soon. We are debuting three more coffee in the next few weeks. We are adding a new in house menu item that is so exciting. We have our five year anniversary video to debut. And we posted a coloring page. You color it best and we guarantee you the prize is high and mighty. Stay tuned for that. We love you Columbus. We can’t wait to see your face to face again.