A latte artwork throwdown and raffle raised help for native nonprofit Sasha Bruce Youthwork, which is celebrating 50 years of helping D.C.’s homeless youth.

BY JASON HUFFNAGLE
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Featured photograph by Mike Erskine

A typical Friday evening at The Roost in Washington, D.C., is stuffed with diners and sprinting kids, who reap the benefits of the additional house that the adjoining Cameo Espresso + Tea gives. Nonetheless, on Friday, June 28, you’d have heard the sounds of grinders and steam wands as an alternative. Baristas and group members had been gathered for a latte artwork throwdown with a goal: to remodel their ardour for espresso and competitors into tangible help for D.C.’s homeless youth.

Kenia Euceda and Sasha Bruce Youthwork

With all of the espresso and milk poured throughout such occasions, the waste can typically really feel at odds with our trade’s values. Veteran espresso skilled Kenia Euceda has lengthy contemplated this dilemma, prompting her, because the espresso director for Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG), to create a mannequin for meaningfully gathering her fellow baristas. This intuition to do higher by her trade, together with a need to have interaction the broader group, led to her organizing a fundraiser to profit Sasha Bruce Youthwork.

For 50 years, Sasha Bruce Youthwork has been a lifeline for Washington, D.C.’s homeless youth, offering important help like meals, shelter, clothes, and extra. It’s the solely emergency shelter for individuals underneath 18 within the District of Columbia.

For Kenia, gathering the group to make a tangible distinction is missional. It’s additionally a approach for Kenia to offer again. Sasha Bruce Youthwork supplied help to Kenia’s mom, Erika, when she first emigrated to Washington, D.C., from El Salvador.

Due to this, Kenia has a imaginative and prescient for what occasions like these may imply for espresso retailers and a bigger position they will play outdoors of their 4 partitions. “Espresso retailers have persistently performed a job in group constructing,” Kenia stated. “When baristas, ‘espresso nerds,’ and regulars collect for a trigger, we’re capable of have interaction different firms with what impacts our communities, (and) by means of that idea we will help organizations like Sasha Bruce Youthwork who’ve made an enduring impression within the area.”

Minimizing Waste, Maximizing Affect

Displaying their help is precisely what baristas and members of the broader group did on the throwdown. They had been invited to take part within the night’s latte artwork competitors and raffle, with all proceeds from the occasion going to help Sasha Bruce’s work within the metropolis.

Baristas paid a $5 buy-in to compete. Competitors rounds and raffle drawings had been interspersed all through the night, making for a enjoyable and festive environment. The occasion attracted veteran and novice baristas alike, in addition to members from D.C.’s Hill East neighborhood.

With the backing of NRG, Kenia organized the occasion and acquired help from a full set of sponsors, together with Spirit Tea, Parlor Espresso, Minor Figures, A Toda Madre Espresso Roasters, and La Finca Espresso. Sponsors supplied espresso, oat milk, and matcha for the throwdown, whereas others donated numerous merchandise–like retail espresso baggage, stickers, and totes for the raffle.

Trade companions made direct donations to Sasha Bruce Youthwork: Parlor Espresso made a $500 donation and Spirit Tea matched 1:1 each donation made. With the buy-in, raffle, and trade donations, the occasion raised $2,144.

Each side of the throwdown occasion was designed to please, together with the shock matcha latte artwork for the ultimate spherical of the competitors, which ended with break up judges. As decided upfront, the foundations of the competitors required weighing out every contestant’s milk waste, with the winner being Grace from Swings Espresso.

Combining Espresso and Fundraising

This wasn’t Kenia’s first foray right into a mixed latte-art-competition-fundraiser. Instantly following the Supreme Court docket’s resolution to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Kenia—together with DMV Espresso—held an identical occasion. That night, opponents and locals raised $3,000 in help of ladies’s well being organizations in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Occasions like these allow and empower espresso individuals. As professionals, we serve our group every day; it comes with the job. Nonetheless, creating significant change typically requires extra of us. It means displaying up—in no matter approach that’s required—in order that we could be optimistic forces by means of direct participation, sponsorship, merely spreading consciousness, or extra. Displaying up creates alternatives for us to help the work of others, have enjoyable, and translate our ardour for espresso into compassionate motion.

Wish to assist? Sasha Bruce Youthwork is celebrating 50 years of service in 2024. Go to Sasha Bruce Youthwork’s web site to discover how one can help Washington’s homeless youth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Huffnagle is a author based mostly in Washington, D.C. He’s a former barista, present espresso obsessive, and a longtime contributor to Barista Journal. His writing for Barista Journal focuses totally on the espresso group, coffee-fueled journey, and improvements within the espresso and hospitality house.

Subscribe and Extra!

Out now: It’s the June + July 2024 challenge of Barista Journal! Learn it free of charge with our digital version. And for greater than three years’ price of points, go to our digital version archives right here.

You’ll be able to order a tough copy of the journal by means of our on-line retailer right here, or begin a subscription for one 12 months or two.