32 NOVEMBER 2020
WHEN HOWARD CHANG and Jeff Wong opened a 6,000-square-
foot, two-story coffee production facility in Brooklyn in
December 2019, little did they know that their operation
would give small roasters and cafés a chance to painlessly
pivot when COVID-19 hit New York City. As Americans
pressed pause on their morning ritual of a quick cortado at
their local coffee shop, the duo’s new project, Shared Roast-
ing, offered businesses the training, space, and equipment
to quickly scale their coffee operations.
“When the pandemic happened, a lot of our clients lost
their wholesale business in Manhattan,” says Chang. “But
folks didn’t just stop drinking specialty coffee. So we’ve been
working with a lot of businesses to help them roast in-house
for a more affordable price: providing the education [through
training courses on roasting techniques, machinery, and
more], helping them with production, and just getting them
comfortable with the ropes.”
Shared Roasting’s clients include Bwè Kafe, a beloved
Hoboken, New Jersey, craft coffee shop, now successfully
producing their own private line of beans. They decided to
go into production at the facility after their previous whole-
saler increased prices dramatically. Another
company, Nguyen Coffee Supply, opted to shift
from a wholesale to a direct-to-consumer
focus during the pandemic. “Roasting our
own coffee beans rather than going to a co-
packer at this stage has allowed us to control
our costs with flexible arrangements,” says
founder Sahra Nguyen. “We are not tied to
any fixed costs like rent or storage, so as
the volume fluctuates, we’re able to control
our expenses, which ultimately supports our
bottom line. In March, we lost most of our
business-to-business revenue, so we shifted
our focus entirely to direct-to-consumer,
which allowed us to grow 123% that month.”
A core aspect of Shared Roasting’s success
during a time of constant uncertainty is the flexibility it
offers coffee businesses. “Our smallest client, for example,
is just renting our smallest machine for one hour per week
and producing five pounds of coffee, just to get comfortable
with the different types of beans out there as they change
their business model,” says Chang. “Our largest clients are
easily hundreds of times bigger than that.” That flexibility
also extends to responsibly sourcing coffee beans for many
of their clients. “A pallet of beans could easily cost $4,000 or
$5,000. Clients benefit from our scale in how we buy coffee,
and we pass along those savings for them to try different
coffees without having to commit to [thousands of pounds]
of beans before they’re comfortable,” Chang says. “We basi-
cally try to empower them in creating their own unique
businesses.”The small-bizsupporters
Shared Roasting gives cafés and newbie roasters a fighting chance
at keeping Americans caffeinated when they need it most.IN A SPAN OF TWO DAYS, Hewn, a bakery in Evanston, Illinois,
went from having 70 wholesale customers, who made up about
40% of their business (including restaurants, coffee shops, and
co-ops), to just four. Struggling to survive, Hewn pivoted to an
online-only retail model within 24 hours while also opening a
new second space. “Our [retail] customers were saying, ‘How
can we help you?’” said co-owner Julie Matthei.
Around this time, Matthei was approached by Alyssa
Hartman, executive director of Artisan Grain Collaborative,
a network of farmers, millers, and bakers who work across
the upper Midwest. Hartman was starting a program called
Neighbor Loaves that would bring in revenue for struggling
bakeries while providing bread for people facing food inse-
curity. Here’s how it works: A customer purchases a Neighbor
Loaf from a participating bakery for an average price of $6.50,
and the bakery donates that loaf to a local food pantry. To be
part of Neighbor Loaves, bakers must source their grain from
local, sustainable farms, and every Neighbor Loaf must con-
tain at least 50% locally grown and milled flour. The concept
took off: Between late March and the end of August, nearly
15,000 loaves were purchased for donation by community
members throughout the upper Midwest; today, Neighbor
Loaves has participating bakeries in five states.
“I think this initiative was clear and simple enough that
people were like, ‘Oh yeah, that is a concrete thing I can do,’”
Hartman says. “Especially because people can’t be out volun-
teering in their communities.” Neighbor Loaves has allowed
some bakeries, like Bird Dog Baking in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to
stay in business. “With Neighbor Loaves, we didn’t have to
take a huge hit,” says co-owner Jennifer Haglund. “Community
members are donating these loaves, and we are the vehicle.”
By this fall, the bakeries are committed to achieving a goal
of donating 25,000 Neighbor Loaves. “I give great kudos to
our customers for rising to the occasion,” Matthei says. “It
shows what a strong community can do in a time of crisis.”Thegood neighbors
In the Midwest, Neighbor Loaves helps bakeries stay in business
while tackling local food insecurity, one loaf of bread at a time.Buy coffee beans from Nguyen Coffee Supply at nguyencoffee
supply.com or from Bwè Kafe at bwekafe.com.Find participating Neighbor Loaves bakeries at graincollaborative
.com/neighbor-loaves.OBSESSIONS“When the
pandemic
happened, a
lot of our
clients lost
their whole-
sale business
in Manhattan,
but folks
didn’t just
stop drinking
specialty
coffee.”