LOCAL TALENT

INSPIRATIONAL

Clermont coffee shop offers fresh roasted offers fresh roasted java and an outlet for java and an outlet for making a difference. making a difference.

STORY: ROXANNE BROWN ≈ PHOTOS: NICOLE HAMEL

n June 2019, Brent Joseph opened the doors to The Outpouring Co ee, a non-pro t shop and roastery in Clermont like no other. The seating area is warm and welcoming, the friendly vibe puts people instantly at ease, and the menu includes chai, teas, matcha, cold brews, cappuccinos, macchiatos, lattes, and more, in a variety of avor options. Other goodies like mu ns, grilled cheese sandwiches, bacon, egg and cheese quesadillas and wa es are also on the menu. Not only that, you can purchase packaged or bulk co ee roasted on site by Brent. The most unique thing about the place, however, is the inspiration that comes with every order, since all pro ts go to making a better life for people – especially children – in Malawi.

“I opened the co ee shop to raise money and awareness for the initiatives we have in the country of Malawi,” says Brent. “Our thought was that the shop would increase public awareness for what we’re doing, with hopes that people would want to support our e orts.”

Brent’s passion stems from a trip to Kenya he took with his brother in 2017 to help to an individual Brent had been introduced to months before.

While there, the pair met a group of people doing missions work at the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania, and other parts of Africa, including Malawi.

That group, which has since become his team, began doing traditional independent missionary work, like church planting and leadership development, in about seven di erent locations throughout the country. In time, Brent realized a pressing need existed for clean drinking water, and later consolidated their e orts to one area.

“I opened the co ee shop to raise money and awareness for the initiatives we have in the country of Malawi,” says Brent. “Our thought was that the shop would increase public awareness for what we’re doing, with hopes that people would want to support our e orts.”

Brent’s passion stems from a trip to Kenya he took with his brother in 2017 to help to an individual Brent had been introduced to months before.

While there, the pair met a group of people doing missions work at the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania, and other parts of Africa, including Malawi.

That group, which has since become his team, began doing traditional independent missionary work, like church planting and leadership development, in about seven di erent locations throughout the country. In time, Brent realized a pressing need existed for clean drinking water, and later consolidated their e orts to one area.

Locals, he says, were drinking contaminated water being taken directly from creeks and rivers, and as a result, the death rate, especially among infants and children, was extremely high.

“The issue when it comes to water contamination is really a cholera issue. Statistically, in the country of Malawi, the mortality rate is high because you have kids in rural areas with no access to normal water sources, only very small creek beds,” Brent says. “That’s very typical, but that water is contaminated, so the kids drink it, and they die. That, unfortunately, is very normal there.”

One day, he and his team visited Ndirande, a village near the center of Blantyre, the second city of Malawi. There, they noticed dozens of what people there refer to as “street kids.”

Brent says most of the children were under the age of ve, living under bridges and just running around unsupervised, barefoot and in tattered clothes, and he was taken aback. Maybe because he and his wife have four young children of their own, he couldn’t imagine living that way, or maybe because in the United States that kind of thing, to that extent, is not a common sight.

“I was looking at them and I was like, ‘What the heck is going on with all these kids? Can we do something for them?’” Brent recalls. His inquiry was the beginning of The Outpouring Kids, a school and home to some of those kids and many more.

“I said, ‘Can we rent a space where we can put them all, wash and feed them, put clothes on them and get a teacher to come in there?’ They (team members) were like, ‘Yeah, that’d be great,’ and the