Portland is known as a coffee city — but some cafes are not only serving drinks, but also a cause as nonprofits. Taylor Bolan is the manager of The Porch Coffee Space. Christina Horrigan is the co-founder of Jubilee Hall. They both join us to share more about the work they’re doing and how they see this movement in the city.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. Portland has been known as a coffee city for at least a generation, but now some coffee shops aren’t just serving drinks. They’re also serving causes. A handful of nonprofit cafes are more focused on their missions of building community, say, or helping recent immigrants than on their bottom lines. Two of them are in Southeast Portland. Taylor Bolan is the manager of The Porch Coffee Space. Christina Horrigan is a co-founder of Jubilee Hall. Welcome to you both.
Christina Horrigan: Thank you.
Taylor Bolan: Thank you.
Miller: Taylor, can you describe your space?
Bolan: Yeah. So The Porch Coffee, we’re in the South Tabor neighborhood and we’re not like a lot of the other shops where it’s like on the main roads, that kind of define neighborhoods. We’re smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood, we’re just around a bunch of houses. We have a decently sized space. We’re actually connected to a church, but just a really, really cool neighborhood coffee shop.
Miller: How is it different from a regular old for-profit coffee shop?
Bolan: There’s a few different ways. I think the biggest one is the payment system. People come in, they order their coffee like they normally would, but the way that we handle charges is it’s all donation based. So people kind of come up to the reader and they can put in whatever amount they want. We have some suggested pricing to kind of guide them, but it really just goes off of donations.
Miller: And how, in general, do people navigate that? I mean, what’s the recommended donation for a cup of drip coffee, if you have one?
Bolan: It’s $2.50 for just an eight ounce cup of drip.
Miller: And in general, what do people pay you?
Bolan: I would say it’s hard to put a number on the split. I would definitely say a majority of people will just pay whatever the suggested pricing is. But I’d say maybe, I don’t know, 30% to 40% would either not give as much as a suggested donation. I do feel like for every person that doesn’t pay as much, there’s usually somebody that comes along that, instead of doing the $2.50, they’ll put $5 down or $10 and just go a little bit above what we ask donation-wise, and kind of offset each other.
Miller: Are there also people who you get the sense that they can’t pay but they can still get a cup of coffee because other people are paying?
Bolan: Oh, definitely. Yeah, we try and make a point to hand out gifts as much as we can and anytime somebody comes up and just asks, we’re more than willing to give coffee their way.
Miller: Christina, what about Jubilee Hall? Can you describe it for people who haven’t been there?
Horrigan: Yeah. So we’re located in the east part of Portland. So right off of 122nd and Burnside, you can drive by it and miss it. But we’re located at the bottom of the Blackburn Building. It’s a grittier part of town and people are like, “do you know where you are?” And we’re like, “yeah, we know exactly where we are and that’s why we’re there.” There’s a big resettlement kind of population around there. It’s right up the MAX line, so really accessible for the community and population that we’re just seeking to serve and walk alongside.
Miller: How would you describe the mission of Jubilee Hall?
Horrigan: Our mission is really just to walk alongside refugees, immigrants, new arrivals who need an extra touch point in their life. So our mission is to train and equip and mentor, walk alongside refugees and immigrants. Our cafe is a fully functional cafe but also a training space for new arrivals to build confidence, to just get the job skills in America, to help with whatever next steps they’re hoping to accomplish in their journey here in the States.
Miller: Where do you hope that trainees can go after they spend some time working there?
Horrigan: Honestly, we want to walk alongside wherever they desire, like whatever their desire is. So if it’s to continue working in a coffee setting, we would love to partner with other coffee shops to help them find employment there. If it’s to work in a bank, to make partnerships with banks, really to be kind of a connecting point for whatever their hopes are.
Miller: How many people have you trained over the last year?
Horrigan: The last year, we’ve trained two people and are looking to train more.
Miller: Taylor, how have people been using the space since you opened it?
Bolan: One of the big things at The Porch that we all care about is just community engagement and recognizing that that can take all kinds of shapes and forms. We, on the regular side of things, have business meetings, we host art shows pretty regularly and every now and then we get some fun stuff. Coming up, I think the first week of June, we’ve got a guy who has a group that really likes the movie “Speed.” So they came to us and we’re like, “hey, can we set up a big screen in the space and watch ‘Speed’ together?”
So it really is all kinds of things that end up happening at The Porch. But like I said, part of our mission is just like providing that space for South Tabor. So it’s cool to see the way that they …
Miller: So he came to you and said, “I love ‘Speed’ and so do some of my buddies, can I have a screening?”
Bolan: Yes, literally.
[Laughter]
Miller: And it’s happening. You said “yes.”
Bolan: Definitely.
Miller: Why? I mean, so how does this fit into your mission and your model, and what you want to happen?
Bolan: I mean, as The Porch, I think our big thing is just finding ways to provide an extra space for the community. And I think being very adamant about meeting whatever needs people bring to us with that can take all kinds of different shapes and forms.
Miller: What do you think volunteers get out of this?
Bolan: I think the biggest thing, in the feedback that I’ve gotten, is a level of community building and relationship building that you wouldn’t necessarily get to have as just somebody that lives in the neighborhood. It’s definitely neighborhood oriented, so you have the same regulars who come in, different touch points where you have that opportunity to make friendships and meet new people.
Miller: Is that the case for you too? I mean, have you actually forged meaningful relationships with people who came in initially for a cup of coffee?
Bolan: I have, yeah.
Miller: Christina, what about you?
Horrigan: It’s been really sweet to be where we’re at and out there in a bit of a coffee desert, so people are always excited for the gathering space. That’s a big part of my vision behind Jubilee, to be a place for the community. A lot of people have come in and they’re honestly just looking for coffee, but they learn about our mission and just quickly become really great ambassadors.
Someone was telling me the other day of how much they consider themselves a very compassionate person, but they live in the area and just drive past 122nd and just kind of don’t really look around. And it’s really encouraged them to stop and to look at faces and to see people and just grow in their humanity for one another. That’s been such an encouragement, because that’s so much of why we want to be there, is people will get their coffee no matter what, but if we can just kind of add a little human level to that connection, then that’s a joy as well.
Miller: As we had been talking about earlier, the big mission of your cafe is to provide training for refugees or immigrants or other new arrivals. Do you have any concerns that it’s getting harder and harder to make a living wage in the service sector, the exact skills that you’re training people with?
Horrigan: Yeah, for sure. That’s something that is out of our control. But a hope that I do have is that, coffee, tea, that’s cross cultural, like every culture kind of has their thing. And if we can kind of bring an element of yes, we’re walking alongside you, but you, as who you are, wherever you come from, can bring so much to the table and have so much to offer, our hope is that they would find a lot of confidence and the ability to be like, “OK, I have a lot to offer” and to be able to take that wherever they end up going.
Miller: Taylor Bolan, what have the biggest challenges been for you so far in running a nonprofit cafe?
Bolan: I think one of the biggest ones is just with us working with volunteers. I think it takes a very different muscle when it comes to things like training, scheduling, a little bit of the consistency that you would have with paid staff is not as present. [It] takes a lot of grace and just like, I don’t know, holding the schedule with a little bit less of a grip, being more open to last second changes and things like that.
Miller: Christina, what do you think it’s going to take for Jubilee Hall to keep going?
Horrigan: I think continued support from the community, either people coming in and just supporting us as a cafe, but also we’re looking to grow our volunteer pool. I mean, we’re all just kind of fighting fires like all the time. So being able to kind of delegate those things to other people so we can kind of really focus and expand on our mission.
Miller: Christina Horrigan and Taylor Bolan, thanks so much.
Bolan: You’re welcome.
Horrigan: Thank you.
Miller: Christina Horrigan is a co-founder of Jubilee Hall [and] Taylor Bolan is the manager of The Porch Coffee Space, both in Southeast Portland.
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