How to Give Back to the Community With Coffee

Coffee is a drink that nearly everyone in the world drinks. With its rich and fruity flavor and a strong hit of energy, it's no wonder it is a popular drink! Coffee has to come from somewhere, though. The presence of coffee in our culture would be impossible without our global community to thank for producing, shipping, roasting, and brewing the coffee we drink daily. There’s a lot of work and even more steps to making coffee. How can you give back to the community using the power of coffee?

Design a Communal Space

Coffee shops and cafes have long been a gathering place for people around the world. From the classic American diner to the Italian espresso bar, coffee has defined itself as a beverage best enjoyed with friends. New formats for cafes and coffee shops are developed daily, with some attached to animal shelters, art workspaces, bookstores, and other great community locations. One fantastic way to get involved in your community — and how to use coffee that gives back — is to start a cafe and create a space for people to gather.

Whether it’s a stand-alone location or sharing the space with another business, coffee shops are excellent locations for community bulletin boards, events, or public gathering spaces. Regulars also like to use coffee shops for more than beverages, choosing to work, do schoolwork, or simply relax. 

Many coffee shop owners refer to their location as a “third place” people can go to besides work and home, and it can be a critical part of developing a solid community. How coffee shops can give back to your community may vary, but they can be a great meeting location in addition to their own methods of giving back.

Enjoy Coffee with Friends

As with wine or beer, coffee has a large culture of “tasting” built around it. With a product full of bold flavor and nuanced complexity, many coffee lovers want to develop their palate to pick out the most exciting notes in their coffee, encouraging others to enjoy it the same way. One thing is true about all coffee tasters, though — they had to start somewhere. They didn’t automatically know how to make a pour-over cup of coffee or what the difference is between a light roast and a dark roast. If you’re trying to come up with how to give back to your community, one of the best ideas is to set up tastings. 

Developing your coffee palette can be a challenge for a new drinker, making it even more difficult when you’re trying to figure it out alone. Like sight and sound, taste isn’t exactly the same for everyone. The notes one person may prefer in a coffee could represent something else to another taster.

That’s why tasting events are such great options for how to give back to the community. It’s simple and engaging, and you help people find a drink that will keep them coming back through your doors for more. Not only is it a fun group activity, but it allows each person to share their thoughts about a common topic and may reveal a passion for coffee that was yet undiscovered. 

Purchase Ethically-Sourced, Fair-Trade Coffee

According to Fairtrade International, small coffee producers produce 70-80% of the world’s coffee. With most of the world drinking coffee, a tremendous amount of crop goods are being shipped away from their home country and processed in another — a practice that has historically been incredibly damaging to the international community. One method of how to give back not just to your own community, but the global communities that enable coffee to be in local cafes, is to be sure you are purchasing ethically-sourced, fair-trade coffee. 

Fair-trade agriculture and commerce focus on ensuring small and disenfranchised producers get their fair share. By auditing producers and sellers by sustainability and labor standards, fair-trade coffee ensures that the coffee you are purchasing has not been damaging its environment, taking away from its producing community, or misusing supply chains. When you buy fair trade and ethically-sourced coffee that gives back, you commit with your consumption to fight inequality rampant in the coffee industry and help give back to communities that support you daily.

Make the Most of Coffee That Gives Back

From your local cafe to farmers around the world, coffee is a ubiquitous crop that has had countless communities develop around it. There’s no better feeling than discovering how to give back to the community; being a coffee enjoyer gives you many chances to do that! Generous Coffee strives to be an ethical coffee roaster in our own right, using our platform to support and give back to the coffee producers we work with. All profits Generous Coffee makes will go to philanthropic organizations around the world, working hard to bring fresh water, education, and more to communities around the globe who would greatly benefit from it. By purchasing Generous Coffee, you join our mission to change the world, one cup of coffee at a time.