Caffeine with a Conscience

The aroma of coffee is not the only reason customers keep going back to Donkey Coffee and Espresso.

Kevin Jacobson, a first-year graduate student studying music education, has been working at Donkey for a little over one year.

“I like coffee,” Jacobson said, explaining why he works at Donkey. “I like the idea of justice and fair trade.”

Donkey is dedicated to social justice, and it even has a nook with the theme of "improving the world."  This tiny room in the middle of the café has a wealth of pamphlets, posters, bumper stickers and framed quotes of famous social justice advocates. This is where the tagline, “Caffeine with a Conscience,” really comes into play.

“We are committed to promoting justice in our community and throughout the world through public awareness, serving, and financial giving,” reads the social justice page on the Donkey Web site.

  Donkey brews organic beans labeled "fair trade." Its supplier is Dean's Beans in Massachusetts.

Dean’s Beans only buys coffee beans from “villages and importers that are committed to Fair Trade and working towards better economic opportunity, improved health and nutrition in the villages,” states the Dean’s Beans Web site.

Donkey supports wearing your conscience as well.  In the social justice nook, there is an advertisement for the Justice Clothing Company, an employee-controlled cooperative of sweatshop-free and union-made clothing.  All of the clothing is made in the United States or in Canada.

  “If you don't mind buying clothing made by slaves, children, indentured servants, or workers who are paid pennies a day, we are not your kind of store,” says the Justice Clothing Web site.

Other organizations in Athens that Donkey promotes include Amnesty International, World Vision, Good Works, Inc. and My Sister's Place.  The complete list is of organizations is here.

Here is a compilation of photos from the social justice nook: