OUR STORY
START SMALL . DREAM BIG
OCTOBER 2014
I taste Burundian coffee for the first time and I fall in love (and so begins my journey to becoming a coffee snob). I bring it home for all my family and friends and they agree that it is the best coffee in the world.
JUNE 2015
I found myself at the bottom of a prayer mountain in Uganda, weeping alone in my friend’s apartment over a story about a girl who’d been horribly used and abused and died on the doorstep the next morning. (Judges 19 if you want to give it a read). “What kind of hell is this?” I heard myself mouthing at the ceiling. The response undid me. “What you are feeling for this girl you’ve never met is a fraction of what I feel for my daughters all over the world who are experiencing this, right now. It breaks my heart and now it has broken yours … and I want you to do something.”
DECEMBER 2015
I had just moved home from Africa and I found myself dreaming about what to do with my life, all the while with this mandate to do something for women who have been trafficked, not really knowing what that meant. Since June I had been researching the issue to try and figure out what would be most needed. My heart settled on employment — at least in the African context — much of the prostitution was driven by desperation. “I’ll open a coffee shop!” The idea hit me straight in the heart and I immediately spilled out my dream onto several typed pages and then I tucked them away because coffee shops are expensive. I hear “start smaller” — whatever that means.
APRIL 2016
I start working as a painter for my dad’s construction company … totally on track, obviously. In the meantime I try to google organizations near me who are already involved in fighting human trafficking. I kid you not, nothing came up. Nothing.
MARCH 2017
I win a contest out of nowhere that a friend told me to enter and got to attend a training course in LA for working with women in the industry. Day 1, I sit next to two ladies from Canada who run large anti-human trafficking organizations in the country. How did they not show up on google?
APRIL 2017
A friend randomly drives down a street named Wild Ginger Ave and I think to myself, “What an awesome Coffee Company name!” -- Especially considering I'm a bit of a wild ginger myself. -- This prompts the dream once again and I begin looking into getting coffee from Burundi in time for my upcoming book launch. Nothing but horrific dead ends and frustration … Again I hear “start smaller” and I just give up.
JANUARY 2018
I am chatting with a friend in Burundi and find out that he knows someone who is in the coffee industry — turns out it’s his brother — and he puts us in contact right away. Within a couple months I have a sample of his coffee on my door. I communicate my suggestions for tweaking the roast to my preference.
MARCH 2018
Overwhelmed by the pressure of writing and publishing a book and also trying to start a coffee company, I had sort of pushed back the idea of ever finding a place to volunteer with women in the industry. At this time, a friend approached me and mentioned that she knew a lady at her church that actually had a church in a strip club and that I should talk to her. Of course, being in the emotional and mental state I was in, I would not contact her for almost a year.
JULY 2018
I receive my first sample shipment from Burundi roasted to my specifications and I am elated! Maybe we can actually launch Wild Ginger Coffee at the book launch. So, contrary to what my body was telling me — you are too stressed trying to publish a book to also start a coffee company — I got to work designing logos and registering the business, even taking coffee orders for when it would arrive.
AUGUST 2018
My book launch is one month away and literally everything that could go wrong has gone wrong — on both book and coffee front. I have to retract all pre-orders and inform people that I had failed, once again, and would be lucky if I even had enough coffee to serve at the launch, let alone sell. Very disappointing.
SEPTEMBER 2018
A few kgs of coffee arrive only THREE DAYS before the book launch. At this point I am completely exhausted and discouraged. By the time the launch is over I am done. Again the dream died and I entered into a season of intense burn out.
DECEMBER 2018
After finally meeting with the leader of the Manor Strip Club Church at some point in all this craziness, I joined the team and went into the club for the first time a few days before Christmas. The church in the Manor in Guelph was not really happening anymore and instead we were just spending time in the club with the dancers and growing together as a team.
AUGUST 2019
Not over my obsession with great coffee, I purchase my first espresso machine and promptly pack it up and take it to the cottage for a week to practice. The drinks tasted good but the milk frothing was meh, and the latte art was clouds - on a good day.
OCTOBER 2019
I become the mad coffee scientist and start making my own syrups and drinks for the holidays. Also, the Manor Team hosts a couple from Brazil who are reaching out to women prostituting themselves on the streets of Joao Pessoa, Brazil. We watch their documentary and they instantly become like family to us.
DECEMBER 2019
I had lost contact with Cedric from Burundi up until this point and now miraculously find myself back in contact with him and I begin to dream again about starting a coffee company. Starting way smaller. Maybe just for small events and if I’m lucky, to sell locally. And sending part of the proceeds to local organizations like the Manor Ministry as well as global ministries such as our friends in Brazil.
JANUARY 2020
I book my ticket to Brazil for October to scout out sponsoring women to learn how to roast coffee there, so I can bring it here and sell it as well. Starting small but dreaming big. In the meantime, the Manor Ministry decides to host a fundraiser for Jen and Phil in Brazil in March and I start thinking, I could launch Wild Ginger Coffee at this event.
FEBRUARY 2020
My latte art is still a dismal failure so I take an evening milk frothing and latte art class. I basically don’t sleep for a week. Also, getting the coffee from Burundi and still a gong show, but I am determined to start doing events through Wild Ginger Coffee, even if I have to start with local coffee to do it.
MARCH 2020
We fail AGAIN to ship a large enough order to sell the coffee, but manage to figure out how to send small amounts to use for events only.
BUT, the Website is live. The brand is launched and we are ready to bring Wild Ginger Coffee to your next event. The dream is still to be able to import and sell Wild Ginger Coffee from Burundi and some day Brazil, but things rarely start how you planned. This is where we find ourselves and we will be faithful in this little while we continue to dream big.
(ALSO) MARCH 2020
In early 2020 the world was hit by the COVID19 pandemic and by the end of March most things were being shut down and cancelled. Knowing many people in our neighbourhood could use a pick-me-up -- and knowing we had coffee to use up -- we offered a one time porch delivery of lattes. It was out of control. In ONE morning we made and delivered 80 hand crafted beverages to our friends around town. (And we vowed never to do delivery again!)
APRIL 2020
We can't do events so we introduce our tasting program where individuals can sign up to be a taster for free. Every few weeks we develop a new drink we've been dying to try and then we have them taste it (porch-pick up of course) and critique it -- people love it! (It's FREE coffee, what's not to love). In the meantime we keep working on being able to roast locally!
MAY 2020
We are miraculously connected to THE BEST, start-up, super local roaster (Small Town Coffee Co.) and he agrees to roast for us. We also make a divine connection with Long Miles Coffee and are able to roast our first samples! BIG MONTH for us!
JUNE 2020
We open our online store and sell our monthly roasting quota in 24 hours! (WHAT?!). We also give away 20 Wildly Local Boxes that support local businesses we know and love -- spoiler alert: It's a hit!
JULY 2020
We have our first pop up cafe open to the public. Our espresso machine dies, our back up expresso machine doesn't work and we have to bring in a regular coffee machine to brew coffee so we can at least serve iced coffee. Disaster. But our people SHOWED UP and were so kind and generous and gracious that we walked away with a lot of disappointment but even more to be thankful for.
SEPTEMBER 2020
We try again. Teaming up with another local business, testing our machine before-hand and having the BEST time with the BEST weather at the BEST location. We realize that while our machine worked it certainly could be faster :)
OCTOBER 2020
We DOUBLE our coffee order and bring in two bags instead of one! (You guys really like your coffee -- that first bag lasted half as long as we thought)
NOVEMBER 2020
We sold our capacity for the year before we even got to December and we were able to make our first annual donation of $489.38 to our sister organizations in Brazil and in Guelph, Ontario. We're blown away!
JANUARY 2021
Last year we prayed for a miracle in order to increase our roasting capacity -- and we got one. (Visit @wildgingercoffee on instagram for the whole story - Whiskey Barrels and Miracles) On January 1st we ordered another roaster ... We are SO grateful!
MARCH 2021
We start selling FAIR TRADE Merchandise from a miraculous find of a company - The Intersection. They are Canadian and sell ONLY items that are made in fair trade factories around the world with many of their items being made by survivors of Human Trafficking.
MAY 2021
We get the wind kicked out of our sales when we find out we need to find a new facility to bag our coffee. The lovely Becca from The86 Restaurant graciously offered us her space so we could keep going and we could have cried (Ok, we cried a little)
JULY 2021
WE STARTED A PODCAST!
The Wild And Free Podcast features stories from survivors of human trafficking as well as those involved in the fight in various ways -- and, of course, some coffee talk for good measure.
OCTOBER 2021
We form an advisory board of amazing, gifted women who challenge and help us to grow and not give up!
NOVEMBER 2021
We hire Donovan as our Social Media/Marketing Director and it is the best feeling in the world!
MAY 2022
Brew-yonce joins our teams and she is revered by all!
JULY 2022
We get the go-ahead from our advisory team to pursue an amazing opportunity to open a coffee shop that we were offered earlier in the year! EEK!
SEPTEMBER 2022
We launch our campaign to raise the funds for The Wild and Free Cafe with knees knocking, hands folded in prayer and hearts expectant!
NOVEMBER 2022
So remember April 2017? The street sign? Well it's a long story, but someone dropped it on the driveway of someone I had only met once and we can't wait to hang it in our Cafe! It's the craziest story - you gotta ask us about it sometime
NOVEMBER 2023
Yes, there is a year between when we lost our first location to when we, through a series of miracles, acquired and signed off on our ACTUAL location and she is a beauty! Listen to The Wild and free Podcast for all the CRAZY details.