Posted on July 23, 2022, 11:40 p.m
Metro-Atlanta coffee business works to give incarcerated people of color a second chance
A Metro-Atlanta business owner wants to expand his coffee roasting business to create jobs for people of color who have been incarcerated, and the generosity of the community is helping make that possible. Read also : Airline ticket prices are finally starting to cool down as the peak summer travel season comes to an end. Now what?.
WOODSTOCK, Ga. – A Metro Atlanta business owner wants to expand his coffee roasting business to create jobs for people of color who have been incarcerated, and the generosity of the community is helping make that possible.
Paris Darnell Landon Jr. at Woodstock Coffee Co. created in 2015.
His upbringing in Seattle gave him his initial exposure to all things java.
“Growing up, drinking coffee every day and being around people every day and people who roasted coffee gave me love and that’s where it started,” Landon Jr. said.
“We source coffee from all over the world from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Peru and Mexico,” Landon said.
Although the company has multiple partnerships with coffee shops and restaurants that carry its coffee, Landon says getting things off the ground wasn’t easy because he was incarcerated a few years ago.
He explained that employment opportunities were limited, and he encountered many roadblocks when trying to start a business.
Woodstock Coffee Co. growing, Landon says he is now focusing on creating Second Choice coffee; and that will open up job opportunities to formerly incarcerated people of color.
Woodstock Coffee Co in Woodstock.
“Having had legal challenges before and having to start somewhere else that I knew, it was very difficult for me to get grants, so I wanted to make it a little bit easier for people of color and the formerly incarcerated,” Landon Jr. said.
His family business is a labor of love.
“My dad and I both roast coffee,” Landon Jr. explained. “He does the cold brew.”
Her sister-in-law recently set up a Go-Fund-Me to help with this passion project, and she quickly received support.
More than $40,000 has been donated.
“I was grateful for that opportunity and I planned to do a lot with it,” Landon Jr. said.
“Some of it has already been used to get the bigger roasters and more coffee products we need to get these things going.”
It’s an unexpected blessing for Landon, and he says he now hopes to pass it on to others looking for a second chance. “I was just generally excited and amazed that people would put up that kind of money to help with what we’re trying to do,” Landon said.
Woodstock Coffee Co. also sells its coffee at the Woodstock Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.
