While paying for my usual 12 oz latte, lemon crepe, and ½ Pacific Northwest salad, I recently took notice of a jar of wooden tokens near the register at one of my favorite cafes, the Essential Bakery. When I inquired about it, I was told that you could pay for an extra cup of coffee, they would put a token in the jar, and then someone from t
he community could redeem it for a free cup of coffee. Here is what the sign says:
The Essential Baking Company
Sospeso Project
The word “sospeso” in Italian directly translates to “suspended,” and that’s what the Essential Baking Company is doing with coffee.
The concept is simple. Buy two coffees and take one.
Simply request to purchase an extra cup of coffee with your order and receive a wooden token to place in the jar on the cafe counter.
A person in need from the local community will then be able to redeem your token for a free cup of coffee at a later time.
Join the Essential Baking Company and help pay it forward
to those less fortunate.
“What a sweet idea” I thought. In Seattle, everyone should be able to have a cup of coffee. So I bought a few tokens for the jar and decided to spread the word. The price of a token is $3.05, the price of a Grande Drip. One token can be redeemed for a free coffee and two tokens can be redeemed for a loaf of bread.
[Editor’s Note: A few more details are available here in this post from 2015 on Wallyhood.]
Another neighborhood favorite, Molly Moon’s, also has a charitable fund, which I thought many might be unaware of. According to Molly Moon’s website:
The anna banana milk fund, created to honor the memory of molly’s little sister anna, who passed away in 2009, provides fresh milk to families in need every week. Anna Melissa Neitzel, Molly’s little sister, was extraordinarily generous and just so happened to love milk. Fresh dairy products like milk, yogurt and cheese are rarely available at food banks, but last year, the Anna Banana Milk fund raised more than $25,000 and provided local, organic milk from Smith Brothers Farms (the same milk we use in our shops) to hundreds of families and individuals.
A donation of just $10 a month provides all the milk a family needs each week. The majority of Molly Moon’s employees donate $10 a month straight from their paychecks to support the fund. We invite you to join us, whether it’s a monthly contribution or just a one-time donation, you can help make a difference in the lives of people who need a little extra help. Anna would be so proud.
In 2015, employee contributions were over $10k, which was matched by the company. Visit Molly Moon’s website if you would like to make a donation.
To continue our charitable walk around Wallingford, I would like to recommend a stop at Miir’s flagship store at N 34th Street and Stone Way. According to Miir’s website, “Every Miir product empowers another person with access to resources to rise above poverty.” Miir carries lines of hydration containers, bicycles, bags and accessories. A portion of the their profits goes to clean water projects and providing bicycles to people in need.
The story of giving in Wallingford would not be complete without a mention of Family Works, a family resource center and food bank located at 1501 N 45th Street. They offer numerous resources for families and people in need. If you are able to give, please visit their website for various ways you can donate or volunteer your time. I would like to highlight the food bank’s wish list (diapers please!), pick up a few the next time you go to QFC and drop them off at the food bank on your way home. Donations are accepted during open Family Resource Center Hours. Monetary donations can also be accepted online.
So the next time you’re getting a coffee at the Essential Bakery, or surfing online, or at QFC, remember those that are less fortunate and spread some neighborly Wally love. And if you are in need, please know that these neighborhood resources are here for you.
I would love to hear about other chances for kindness in Wallingford, if you know of any ones I missed, please share them in the comments section.
Great post! Thanks Susanna. I’ll now keep my eyes open for neighborhood opportunities to contribute.
How wonderful! Now we can can all congratulate ourselves and show our friends how kind and generous we are!
Let’s be honest here: Everyone who reads this thread, whether they want to admit it or not, KNOWS that giving a free cup of coffee to a homeless person won’t do a damn thing to fix the homeless problem. It’s not going to help them address their addictions or find them work or get them off the streets. The only thing it does is let us pat ourselves on the back and go about our merry way like we’ve made a difference.
Hey, it’s your money, do what you want with it. But it’s really no different than just giving the off-ramp guys some cash. Seattle is now in it’s eleventh year of it’s “Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness” because we keep wasting our money on RV safe camps, tent cities, million-dollar high tech self-cleaning toilets (or as i call them, “tiny brothels”), and now, free coffee.
If we really want to address this problem and help the ones who want help, end the concerns about shelter safety Offer them individual, lockable rooms in centralized, sober warehouses where they’d have ready access to drug and job counselors, 3 hots and a cot, shower facilities, and nearby transit. Give them some responsibilities and pride in themselves by asking them to help cook group meals, clean and maintain the facility, and tend to the p-patch where they can get fresh veggies.
Instead, we think we’re being humane by letting them break rules the rest of us would get busted for and sleeping on the streets.
I agree with you but, until those issues are resolved, we can also give them a cup of coffee or two along the way. And it wouldn’t hurt to add a bit of one-on-one conversation as well.
I figure the tokens are not an attempt to resolve poverty, but just a gesture. It seems they are doing a version of a “leave a penny, take a penny” jar. But, that is a convenience that anyone can use. My $2.02 purchase paid for with a $5 can conveniently be rounded off by using 2 pennies from the penny jar.
At the Bakery, I can buy someone a coffee if I see an opportunity. However with the tokens, can I use one for myself? What are the criteria? If I, an obviously well-fed, well dressed, apparently successful white male who bathes, grab a token and order a foo-foo coffee drink, what will the folks at the bakery do? Tell me I don’t fit an appropriate profile?
And Hay, I don’t think creating warehouses for the “down and out” to “give” them success will help. These folks can do the sorts of things you describe any time the choose to, to some degree, but they choose not. Do they even make the wee bit of effort to clean up the garbage in their camp/dump sites? Not that I see.
What Molly with milk and Miir with bikes and water (love the beer selection, too!) are doing is a far sight better. Targeted help for specific needs. Be wise, be generous, be effective.
“And Hay, I don’t think creating warehouses for the “down and out” to “give” them success will help. These folks can do the sorts of things you describe any time the choose to, to some degree, but they choose not.”
I disagree, Rickvid. Some of them are homeless for legitimate reasons and not just doing it for the lifestyle. Giving them a secure facility and a program can help turn lives around; I’ve seen it work. As for the others, well we can’t help those who refuse to help themselves, so we should continue to sweep them out until they get the message and move onto a more “compassionate” city.
More compassionate than Freattle? That would be a sight!
Spent many years in ministry work to the “homeless” in Baltimore and found very few, like a tiny gnat’s wing sized group, of them who would help themselves or take help for any reason except to exploit those who tried to assist. I hold no political agreement with Spare Change magazine, but I buy it as the vendors are at least making an effort. They are the few.
Oooh, forgot to thank you Susanna for this, and so many other, great articles.
Thanks Susanna! Mosiac is another great coffee house that’s all based on donations. You pay for your drink/food what you feel is fare and then however much you choose to tip goes into their token jar that can be utilized for free coffee/food. It doesn’t matter if you donate a $1 or $5 a token is added to the jar. My only complaint is that they are not open all week 😉
Evie
So if I buy coffee at Mosaic, the tip I would leave for the barista/server/cashier doesn’t go to them, but into a donation jar? Or are they all making $15 per hour and don’t get tips anyway?
Hi Susanna: Thanks for the great piece, and especially for mentioning FamilyWorks! As a founding board member of the organization, I know first hand it’s a great and worthy place!
I was, however, a little surprised that you overlooked the anti-poverty agency Solid Ground, which shares its building with FamilyWorks and the Wallingford branch library.
At Solid Ground, we know that our community is stronger when everyone can achieve their full potential. Building people’s well-being — like building a house that lasts a lifetime — takes sound materials and
experienced professionals to create and implement a vision. Just as one would turn to experts to build a house, our case managers, educators and other specialists work along with hundreds of community partners supporting participants to build well-being through enhanced social relationships, skills, and advocacy so that they can fully contribute to society, now and into the future.
Donations are welcome at https://www.solid-ground.org/donate/online-donation/
Volunteers are needed, too! https://www.solid-ground.org/get-involved/volunteer/
For information about community events: https://www.solid-ground.org/get-involved/events/
Thanks!
Mike Buchman
Communications Director
Sorry for the omission. Thanks for including the information here.