CityKid Java Hits a Milestone Year
CityKid Java Hits a Milestone Year How did this local philanthrobrew celebrate ten years of coffee and community? Let me count the ways. By: Megan Suckut
Image Credit: CityKid Java Most people know that coffee and art go well together, but only CityKid Java can prove it. The Minneapolis premium coffee company celebrated its tenth anniversary by creating coffee art at the Powderhorn Art Fair earlier this month. Using 3500 cups full of different mixtures of coffee and milk, CityKid Java, along with local students and teachers, replicated the iconic spoonbridge and cherry from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The completed mosaic, which spanned 17.5 feet by 13 feet, represented the company’s “blended” love for coffee, Minneapolis, art and kids. Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation, a South Minneapolis nonprofit, started CityKid Java ten years ago to sell coffee and donate every penny of its profits to Urban Ventures’ mentoring and tutoring programs aiming to combat poverty. “Our biggest accomplishment is the fact we hit ten years and have reached 10,000 kids,” said CityKid Java Marketing and Public Relations Intern Allison Matthews. “We have a place in the neighborhood, and we have a community who is eager to contribute to our cause.”
Founder of CityKid Java and Urban Ventures’ Vice President MarkPeter Lundquist had worked as team lead at the very first Caribou Coffee store and became interested in the idea of starting a forprofit coffee company that would fund a nonprofit foundation. Lundquist recruited local businesspeople and launched CityKid Java in 2002. “When customers loved the quality, and knew it was the right thing to do, we knew we were on the right track,” Lundquist said in CityKid Java’s 10 year anniversary press release. In the ten years the company has been in business, it has sold its specialty coffee brands to universities, churches, corporations and healthcare organizations with the message, “Good Coffee, Good Cause.” Not only has CityKid Java celebrated its tenth year with coffee art, but it has also released a new coffee blend, the Lake Street Blend. This new blend, described as just as daring and bold as the kids with whom CityKid Java works, joined the company’s eight other coffee blends, including its most popular, the Highlander Grogg, a flavor blend of rum, caramel and vanilla. It’s not all about the coffee and art, however. Urban Ventures and CityKid Java also recently opened a community garden along the Midtown Greenway. What started as an orchard planted to show local youth where fruit comes from has become a full garden boasting 45 fruit trees, bearing pears, plums, apples and cherries, and a section for wildflowers. CityKid Java hosted a Community Garden Day 2012 event there in August and served coffee and snowcones to community members who stopped by. Ten years of donating all profits to Urban Ventures and its programs has culminated into a tenth anniversary featuring a new coffee blend, community garden and coffee artwork. From campuses to cafés, the Twin Cities is proud of its local premium coffee company. “People who wouldn’t normally understand how to support programs like Urban Ventures are able to give back by drinking CityKid Java,” Matthews said. “We’re glad to be a liaison between this foundation and its supportive community.”
Image Credit: CityKid Java Most people know that coffee and art go well together, but only CityKid Java can prove it. The Minneapolis premium coffee company celebrated its tenth anniversary by creating coffee art at the Powderhorn Art Fair earlier this month. Using 3500 cups full of different mixtures of coffee and milk, CityKid Java, along with local students and teachers, replicated the iconic spoonbridge and cherry from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The completed mosaic, which spanned 17.5 feet by 13 feet, represented the company’s “blended” love for coffee, Minneapolis, art and kids. Urban Ventures Leadership Foundation, a South Minneapolis nonprofit, started CityKid Java ten years ago to sell coffee and donate every penny of its profits to Urban Ventures’ mentoring and tutoring programs aiming to combat poverty. “Our biggest accomplishment is the fact we hit ten years and have reached 10,000 kids,” said CityKid Java Marketing and Public Relations Intern Allison Matthews. “We have a place in the neighborhood, and we have a community who is eager to contribute to our cause.”
Founder of CityKid Java and Urban Ventures’ Vice President MarkPeter Lundquist had worked as team lead at the very first Caribou Coffee store and became interested in the idea of starting a forprofit coffee company that would fund a nonprofit foundation. Lundquist recruited local businesspeople and launched CityKid Java in 2002. “When customers loved the quality, and knew it was the right thing to do, we knew we were on the right track,” Lundquist said in CityKid Java’s 10 year anniversary press release. In the ten years the company has been in business, it has sold its specialty coffee brands to universities, churches, corporations and healthcare organizations with the message, “Good Coffee, Good Cause.” Not only has CityKid Java celebrated its tenth year with coffee art, but it has also released a new coffee blend, the Lake Street Blend. This new blend, described as just as daring and bold as the kids with whom CityKid Java works, joined the company’s eight other coffee blends, including its most popular, the Highlander Grogg, a flavor blend of rum, caramel and vanilla. It’s not all about the coffee and art, however. Urban Ventures and CityKid Java also recently opened a community garden along the Midtown Greenway. What started as an orchard planted to show local youth where fruit comes from has become a full garden boasting 45 fruit trees, bearing pears, plums, apples and cherries, and a section for wildflowers. CityKid Java hosted a Community Garden Day 2012 event there in August and served coffee and snowcones to community members who stopped by. Ten years of donating all profits to Urban Ventures and its programs has culminated into a tenth anniversary featuring a new coffee blend, community garden and coffee artwork. From campuses to cafés, the Twin Cities is proud of its local premium coffee company. “People who wouldn’t normally understand how to support programs like Urban Ventures are able to give back by drinking CityKid Java,” Matthews said. “We’re glad to be a liaison between this foundation and its supportive community.”
