State Street is home to numerous coffee houses, ranging from Starbucks to Fair Trade Coffee, and they all have one thing in common: their business is always booming.
No matter the time of day, it seems as though the coffee houses that cover this campus are always filled with students studying or meeting for a coffee break mid-afternoon. Some of these establishments, as well as others not in the coffee business, parade their windows with fair trade and local business signs. These are put up in the effort to keep the local businesses thriving and to keep Madison money in Madison.
Coffee houses and local stores aren't the only ones who are supporting this idea. Professors for certain classes assign books that can be picked up at the Rainbow Room, instead of the University Bookstore, in hopes of achieving the same goal. It's obvious that Madison locals are trying their best to keep their stores and shops thriving without letting bigger chains put them in the shadows.
One business that has an extraordinary mission is the new coffee house on the corner of Charter and University. As Becca Schimpf, a writer for Madison Magazine, reports, this coffee house is using a "mission of social justice in order to stand out from the coffeehouse crowd." The way they are going about it is by using ethics in their business, something many large chains forget to push. By purchasing from local and organic growers who use ethical farming practices, this coffeehouse plans on using fair trade coffee and seeks to keep the money local.
Owned by the partnership of the Wesley Foundation and Madison Campus Ministry, their primary goal is to become equivalent to the Catacombs, only on the south side of campus. The location of this mission-oriented coffeehouse is The Crossing, a previous home to the Three Squares and possibly the first co-op initiative in Madison. Doug Pierce, executive director of The Crossing, said he didn't want to rent out the building to just anyone, he wanted to rent it out to a mission-driven place.
During the beginning of fall, students donated their time to help in decorating the new coffeehouse and getting it ready for business. With such a strong mission statement in mind, it is doubtful larger chain competitors will soon overshadow this coffeehouse. And not only is it putting its ethical power to use, like many other fair trade coffeehouses across campus, they are also joining the fight to keep local money circulating in Madison. Businesses like these are helping to keep the small town feel that Madison has provided to its residents, and prevent it from becoming a strictly chain city that devastates locality.
Estie Kruglak ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in communication arts.