A Steaming Cup of Justice

Towards the end of Sept., my Dad and Stepmom came out for a visit.  We went up to Tweed and had a look around, taking in the Lakeside Park and the United and Catholic churches."  (I know, I know but Dad's a preacher, I'm a preacher's kid and my Stepmom's the daughter of missionaries so what do you expect? ) Then it was time for a coffee.  The local coffee shop on the main street is a pretty hip place- the store window is tastefully filled with ecclectic objects from Afirca and other coffee growing parts of the world, there are plants and magazines, and computers for internet access.  

The shop offers organic and fair trade coffees and teas- and they are robust and delicious.  Fair Trade means the owners make a committment to giving farmers a decent gauranteed price for the coffee they grow, rather than leaving them at the mercy of commodity prices. This married couple relocated from Toronto eight years ago, and love living and working in this new and very different part of the world. 

My Stepmom is a friendly and curious person and has the gift of being able to talk to anyone.  She asks about some slips of paper with names on them which are taped to the wall behind the counter.  The owner smiles and says "Oh, those are our wall coffees".  "What's a wall coffee?" we ask.

"Well, a lot of people who come in here are on social assistance or disability and sometimes they don't have the money to pay for coffee.  So when that happens we just write it down on a piece of paper and we stick it up on the wall to keep track, and then when their checks come in at the end of the month they pay up.  People will come in and say 'I'll have a wall coffee', and we just right it down and up it goes."

"Isn't that great!"  Says my Stepmom.  "And do people pay what they owe?"  The owner nods and looked very serious "Everbody always pays- we've never had any problems at all.  Come the end of the month, everyone's caught up."

We thank her, not only for the wonderful coffee, but for the story of the wall coffees as well.  And I realise that this coffee shop is serving up justice, for far away farmers and local customers alike, one warm mug at a time.