We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Doug Hewitt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Doug below.

Doug, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

1951 Coffee Company was named after the 1951 Refugee Convention that took place in Geneva, Switzerland. After World War ll and the founding of the United Nations, the newly minted organization set out to correct one of the most grievous tragedies of that error–forcing innocent people back into conflict zones. At this meeting, the international community first created the legal definition for a refugee and set out the laws and guidelines for their future protection. As a cafe that provides training and employment to refugees and other humanitarian immigrants, we also wanted to not only recognize the existence of refugees, but to be a crucial part in helping people fleeing war, conflict, and violence to start anew in the United States.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am originally from Tennessee and moved to California in 2007 for graduate school. I found a job at a local cafe. One day I struck up a conversation with one of my coworkers who was an asylum seeker from Eritrea. He shared with me his journey to the United States and it changed the way I saw the world radically. From that time, I began working alongside the refugee community in the United States. I volunteered with the International Rescue Committee in Oakland, Ca as a family mentor and English teacher while working as a coffee roaster at a coffee consulting company. Eventually I landed a job working as an employment caseworker at the IRC office. I spent 3 years there working in refugee employment and resettlement, before deciding that I needed to step away from direct work in a resettlement agency to help create a solution in the private sector for refugee employment. In 2015, I joined up with fellow IRC colleague Rachel Taber to start 1951 Coffee Company as a place to provide early employment to refugees in a welcoming and supportive environment. Our cafe on Channing Way in Berkeley opened its doors in January 2017 amidst travel bans and government backlash against immigration. We quickly became a public gathering place for the support of the refugee community in the Bay Area and for those wanting to show their support as well. Beyond the doors of our cafe in Berkeley, we also host a training program out of a coffee lab in Oakland. Through our training program we have provided free barista training and employment support to 400 newcomers. For many UC Berkeley students who frequent our cafe they may initially see us as just another coffee shop amongst the many amazing cafes in the Bay Area. We serve all the specialty drinks with latte art and wonderful pastries from brands like Firebrand and ThirdCulture Bakery. However, as they spend more time with us they realize that their purchases go to support each and every newcomer working in our cafe and providing free training to between 40-60 newcomers every year. UC Berkeley students are known around the world for being socially active. With a social enterprise right at the heart of the Telegraph business district on the southside of campus, this allows students to transform their coffee consumption, a daily routine, into an act of support for refugees and other humanitarian immigrants that have come to call the Bay Area home.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

In June 2022, we started roasting our own coffee on a Bellwether Roaster. Bellwether is revolutionary company based in Berkeley. They have created an electric zero emission roaster that is roughly the size of a commercial fridge. This roaster allows for a small cafe like ours to reduce our carbon footprint and take control of one of our most vital ingredients–coffee. We knew we always wanted to go into roasting our own coffee but the Bellwether Roaster made that happen much faster. The largest number of participants in our programming at 1951 Coffee come from eastern Africa. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia have coffee cultures that go back centuries. Tayesh, our Lead Barista and Coffee Roaster, is from Eritrea. In a traditional East African coffee ceremony the coffee begins as green beans and is then roasted to fill the air with an amazing aroma. Today Tayesh continues that tradition with us in the cafe on Channing Way. Most mornings when she opens the cafe, she turns on the roaster to begin a few batches of our signature Cloud King Espresso Blend. The chinking of the coffee beans in the drum and fragrance of roasted coffee soon fills the air. Roasting our own coffee has not only given us more control over our own supply and quality of coffee but has also allowed us the margins to begin to sell online subscriptions and wholesale to other businesses.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

Firstly, we operate a physical cafe; this represents our traditional retail revenue stream, that serves as both a source of income and a platform for our mission.
Secondly, we’ve expanded into e-commerce, selling our coffee beans, monthly subscriptions and branded merchandise online. This allows us to reach customers beyond our physical location and provides an additional income source.
Lastly, and importantly for our mission-driven organization, we receive funding through donations. This support from individuals and organizations who believe in our cause helps us maintain our training programs and support our core mission of empowering refugees and asylum seekers.
These multiple streams not only provide financial stability but also allow us to engage with our supporters and customers in different ways, spreading awareness of our mission while building a sustainable business model.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://1951coffee.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/1951coffee
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1951coffee
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/13179202
• Yelp: https://www.facebook.com/1951coffee