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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 2017)
Street Roots • Nov. 24-Dec. 1, 2017 O p in io n Page There’s a new coffee in town - Street Roast treet Roots has an exciting announcement to make. part of the project, but ultimately became the driver the entire production. Marigold Coffee has their own story. A mission- A new coffee is coming to Portland. driven small business owned by Joey and Cassy We are proud to announce that in December, Gleason, two sisters who have a vision to create Marigold Coffee is launching a Street Roast. spaces for where coffee and people come together. Proceeds from the sale of each bag will support “We immediately saw the benefits this project the Street Roots vendor could bring,” said Cassy. “We saw how Street program and the newspaper Roast could provide a regular revenue stream for a DIRECTOR'S itself. wonderful, well-respected organization in Street DESK Street Roast will be Roots. Getting to know Israel and the folks at available in New Seasons Street Roots, we also recognized this opportunity By Israel Bayer Markets throughout as a way to contribute to something much bigger.” Portland and at the “This project, however, offers a small, but an Marigold Coffee location at important opening for ordinary Portlanders to help 2815 Southeast Holgate address the struggle of homelessness by Boulevard. humanizing the people experiencing it,” said We couldn’t be more excited at Street Roots. Cassy. “Coffee has always been a connector. It The story of Street Roast is a story of how the bridges the hemisphere between producers in the private sector and the nonprofit sector can come tropics and consumers in the north. It serves as a together to support social change in our bridge between people sharing a moment together community. enjoying a warm cup. Coffee, like any produced Feeling devastated after last year’s election, good, creates a mysterious web of interconnecting Seth Walker with Curate.org, along with Jeremy economies of trade and pleasure and Ehn and Brenden Schild with Ideaville, wanted to interdependence, perhaps more than any other give back to the community. It wasn’t the first commodity when you take into consideration the time they did a project like this. growers, the pickers, the Seth Walker has importers, the shippers, been working with the roasters, the grocers, speakers with the cafe owners, the TEDxPortland for baristas and finally the years, including people - all of us! - who myself. finally enjoy this Jeremy and Brenden marvelous drink.” had already helped Yes! dream up Happy Cup In th e en d , w e Coffee, a coffee collectively approached company created to New Seasons about the support and employ project. They were adults with disabilities. ecstatic about the idea of Both Ideaville and having Street Roast on Curate.org have a their shelves. specific mission to If there’s one thing we help deliver creative all learned, it’s that given solutions for brand the chance, local marketing and businesses and supporting greater nonprofits have the good in the opportunity to create an community. This environment where we are all working toward the summer, they approached Street Roots about common good of our community. creating a product to support the organization. When Street Roast hits the shelves in For months, four graphic design interns from December, it will be an example of how we can all Oregon State University supported by Ideaville be working together to create social change, one helped hatch the idea of Street Roast. cup of coffee at a time. It will be a whole new The company ended up donating about $50,000 stimulus package. in creative services to the project. “Portland is a big-hearted city,” said Cassy. “Yet The team was eventually introduced to Marigold the problem of homelessness and the housing Coffee by their colleagues at Good Coffee, a crisis can seem too big and too complicated to neighborhood coffee shop who’d heard about the solve. There is no magic bullet to fix a problem. emerging social venture from Business For A We see pain and despair on the streets, but too often ordinary Portland residents tune out and Better Portland. stop seeing the person caught in a bad situation as Business For A Better Portland is a new membership organization of Portland’s business a human being with a unique story full of hope and community working to support a range of housing fear, needs and gifts same as their own. We couldn’t be happier to be a part of helping Street and homeless policies, among other things. It’s Roots.” also their goal to connect local businesses with Thank you to everyone who made this happen, nonprofits to do mission-driven work and have a and to all of our amazing supporters. We’re looking more progressive business voice in the forward to sharing a cup with all of you! community. Marigold Coffee was not only thrilled to be a S Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can reach h im a t israel@streetroots. org or follow h im on Twitter @israelbayer. Executive Director Israel Bayer israel@streetroots.org Executive Editor loanne Zuhl Vendor Program Director Cole Merkel cole@streetroots.org Senior S taff Reporter Emily Green Operations Director Sarah B e e c ro ft Program Assistant Caelin Miltko, Jesuit Volunteer Vendor Assistant Scott Jackson, Alex Gillow-Wiles Development Assistant Rosemary Wilson Editorial Producer Monica Kwasnik Reporters Sarah Hansell, Leonora Ko, Emilly Prado, Jared Paben, Amanda Waldroupe, Stephen Quirke, Helen Hill Photographers Diego Diaz, Arkady Brown Canvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors Chairman Brad Taylor Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford Treasurer Heather Stadick Secretary Dan Jones Directors Michael Anderson, Sandra Hahn, John Brown, Nels Johnson and Alison Hallett Volunteers Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Anjali Rathore, Zoe Klingmann, Dan Jones, Dennis Hogan, Monica McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas Buell Jr., Jason Cohen, Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Diana Richardson, Paul and Madeline Gefroh, Mary Anne Joyce, Del Shawn Davidson, Gillian Floren, Mark OIDani, Bianca Butler, Alex Cherin, Jenny Farres, Evan Firsick, Camber Hansen-Karr, Miranda Woods, Henry Brannan, Megan Smith, Luke Scheuermann, Helen Hill, Lily Krai, Mary Emerson, Brooke Anderson, Kathleen McFall, Robb Hengerer, Bronwyn Miles, Maile Yeats- Rowe, Erin Parsons, Bridget Brown and Megan Pickerel-Winer. If you're interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots.org/volunteer. Or you can call for more information at 503-228-5657.
