Hello! I'm the director of Coffee Crafters Academy here in Columbus. Our mission is to support individuals in their transition out of incarceration through training and employment in the specialty coffee industry.

We have an exciting project in the works that I'm hoping you all can help support! We are in the process of designing and building a custom mobile espresso cart that will eliminate our need to renovate existing spaces within crowded and resource constrained prisons. The mobile unit will be a fully functional espresso bar, certified by the local health department, to prepare and serve a variety of specialty coffee drinks.

These mobile units will enable us to expand our barista training operations into more correctional facilities around the state. I receive 2-3 phone calls a month from prison officials requesting that we bring our program to their facility. However, we have been unable to meet the demand because of the immense resources and time needed to renovate physical spaces within correctional facilities for our cafes to safely operate. Also, these mobile units could be manufactured by our team of restored citizens thus giving them a job and a means to continue to grow our impact and support more individuals in their journeys out of incarceration, for good.