6 Years Old, 6 Community Projects

Taproom 5th anniversary party in 2019.

Empty cafe under COVID-19 restrictions.

This week Taproom celebrates six years of being in business! Our anniversary tradition is to do a huge blowout with our annual Rock-Paper-Scissors competition - drinks, catered food, swag, prizes, and giveaways. It’s an excuse to gather our friends and family together and celebrate the fact that we’re alive and kicking and an active part of the community.

Unfortunately, this year we can’t enjoy our usual anniversary party. We’re just taking it one day at a time trying to make curbside pickup and local deliveries work while we practice social distancing.

But there’s still much to celebrate! Our community rallied around us, continuing to buy coffee, loading up on gift cards, sending goodies and notes of encouragement, and even offering personal loans. Because of all of you, we’ve stayed in business and we’re weathering the COVID storm fairly healthily. We’re on good enough footing to not just pay our bills, but to keep spreading the love to others in the community.

So here’s what we’re gonna do… To celebrate six years, we’re doing six community projects.

We have contacted all the partnering organizations and are firmly committing to the financial project goals. If you are interested in pledging a matching sponsorship or adding to our fundraising efforts, please contact us or contribute using this link.

1. The Giving Soup Kitchen: Staplehouse has been temporarily converted into a soup kitchen providing meals at no cost to food service workers who cannot currently work due to COVID-19. We will donate $1 per transaction that takes place at Taproom in the first week of May (Friday 5/1 - Thursday 5/7). The more people that order curbside pickup from Taproom that week, the more we’ll donate towards the soup kitchen.

2. Kirkwood Cares: A sweet couple that lives nearby needs a new water heater and pump. We’re committing our revenue from 150 bags of coffee to pay to get that installed at the home ASAP! We’re sticking 150 Kirkwood Cares stickers on our retail coffee bags today, and once we’ve sold them all we’ll know we’ve raised enough to replace the water heater.

3. Embrace Refugee Birth: For the next 2 weeks, we will accept donations of specific baby items that will go to refugee mothers in Clarkston. Click here to see the list and then drop off your items at Taproom no later than Sunday, May 17th. We will collect all the donations and deliver them to Embrace.

4. Relief Fund: Partnering with Friends of Refugees, we are contributing to a relief fund that assists refugee families who have suffered job loss or illness due to COVID-19. Funds go towards food boxes, rent, or other urgent needs during the current crisis. For the fund, we’re committing our revenue from any gallons of Iced Coffee purchased May 1-7.

5. Letters to hospital patients: In partnership with More Love Letters and Emory Decatur Hospital, we're getting people to write encouraging and uplifting letters to hospital patients who cannot receive visits from their loved ones due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Write as many letters as you'd like! We will send batches of letters to the hospital every week, at least through the end of May.

   • Instructions to those writing letters:

     • Letters may be typed or hand-written.

     • Focus on the positive.

     • Avoid talking specifically about COVID-19, illness, or death.

     • Avoid politics, religion, or personal information.

     • Address the letter generically: "Hi there," "Greetings to you," or something similar.

     • Close the letter anonymously or simply sign your first name.

     • Drop off letters in-person at Taproom any hours we're open, or mail them (NOTE: We are no longer accepting letters at this time)

   • When letters are received by Taproom:

     • If sealed in an envelope, letters will be opened.

     • All letters will be checked for appropriate content before passing on. 

     • Though there is no stated risk or reports of transmission through mail, our staff will wear masks and gloves while handling letters.

     • We'll collect all the letters and pass them on to our contact at Emory Decatur Hospital to be distributed appropriately.

6. Ethne Health: Ethne Health has been conducting COVID-19 testing as part of their healthcare services to primarily the refugee population in Clarkston. As one would expect, language barriers can be a hindrance to effective communication during patient visits to the clinic. Taproom is committing to fund one week of interpretation services for the clinic, which would serve an estimated 30 patients coming to receive COVID-19-related services. We’re funding this project with competitor buy-in fees for an upcoming home coffee brewing competition (announcing details soon!).