Each weekend at the Texas Farmers’ Market you’ll find Pour & Press, a coffee and pastry company based out of Austin. If you visit their stand, you’ll see my friend Kyle selling some amazing cold brew coffee and a variety of his mouth-watering pastries. What you might not see is the mission that drives them to be out there every week: To provide opportunities to kids transitioning out of the foster care system.
We wanted to write a post on what they are doing because we believe in their mission and think you should too! Currently, Pour & Press is donating a percentage of the profits to supply bus passes for kids transitioning out of foster care, which helps to provide them with transportation to get to work. Already they are doing some amazing things, but this is only the first step of their dream!
The Who
Kyle and Steve, the owners of Pour and Press, moved their families from Arkansas to Texas to create a business with a purpose. Kyle graduated from The Culinary Institute of America with his Baking and Pastry Arts degree 6 years ago. Since then he has worked in several hotels, cafes, and restaurants baking up tasty treats and brewing caffeine for the masses. Steve has a Masters in Social Work and is a Licensed Masters Social Worker. In 2012, he worked with the Department of Children and Family Services in Arkansas, helping kids aging out of the foster care system create transitional life plans. As a counselor/therapist, he has been an advocate, coach, and encourager for many individuals and families of diverse backgrounds. Their unique backgrounds make for the perfect team to take this on! They chose Austin for a few reasons, one on them being the opportunity.
The Why
If a teenager ages out of the foster care system, it’s typically because the state was unable to reunite them with their family or place them in a permanent home. In 2014 more than 22,000 young people aged out of foster care, simply because they were too old to remain. When this happens, they are thrust into an unknown world with little-to-no support system or life skills. By age 26, approximately 80% of young people who aged out of foster care earn a high school degree, and only around 4% earn a college degree.
The What
Pour & Press is a business with a passion for coffee and pastries, but the mission that drives them is to provide stability and employment opportunities to the kids in their community who are aging out of foster care. Their dream is to have a company that can provide employment, build a support system, and offer an environment for these teenagers to learn valuable life skills.
Currently, Pour & Press is only in the farmers’ markets, but this is just the first step! They are currently in the process of raising money to build a mobile coffee cart and trailer to expand their market to local businesses and food truck events…this is the next step! By having their own trailer, they will be able to go anywhere in Austin selling their amazing products and sharing their story with more people!
Be A Part
They started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the money needed to build this mobile cafe. What they need is for people to join their mission by backing their campaign! I wish this problem would just disappear on its own, but it won’t. Tomorrow when I wake up and go to work, I know there will be so many kids waking up to their first day on their own.
So I have a choice: do something, or do nothing.
This is going to require people to step up and care about these kids enough to invest (and maybe even sacrifice) time, money and energy. This is not some inevitable social mountain too big to budge, but an amazing opportunity to be a support system for kids who otherwise might not have a one.
Steve and Kyle recognize there is a need that cannot be overlooked, and we are so excited to back them financially and through prayer! We cannot wait to see the impact Pour and Press has on the foster kids of Austin!
Check out these links below to learn more about the mission of Pour & Press:
Love this! Dustin & Cat, thanks for your support, prayers and for making this your own agenda. Jamessage 1:27♡
Love you guys and excited to see others not only help you guys, but maybe help spread this idea into their business models!
[…] We hope someday to be full time foster parents, and even parents (however that looks.) Being a foster or adoptive parent is not for everyone. But we can all do something! There are so many opportunities to serve in this area: transporting, donating clothing/ furniture, giving your time to watch children and be a break for foster parents, work a couple hours a week in the DFS office, and more. As we have blogged about before, there are opportunities to get involved with small businesses that are doing something such as in Austin Texas: Pour & Press. […]