Volente Coffee Roasters – Coffee With A MissionTM

By John Villines, Chief Operating Officer

This year the Modesto Gospel Mission is celebrating its 75th year serving the poor and homeless in Stanislaus County. And its first social enterprise is catching fire. What is it? Roasting coffee beans.

A social enterprise is a business that focuses on promoting social or environmental welfare instead of making or maximizing profit. The Mission has spent the last few years establishing its first social enterprise –roasting and selling bagged coffee beans.

Development Director Scott Pernice came up with the idea, and at first the executive team thought he was crazy. What does coffee beans have to do with helping the homeless? But as the leadership and board prayed and thought through the project, Volente Coffee RoastersTM was born. “Volente” is from the Latin phrase Deo volente, which means “God willing.”

Providentially, as the Mission’s development department was working on its business plan, the Mission’s CEO Jason Conway came across an article about a new program for nonprofits that was launching by the Stanislaus Community Foundation and the Porges Family Foundation in 2021. Profit with Purpose was the 10-week social enterprise accelerator for local nonprofit organizations, and the program paired the Mission team with Matt Henderson, a wine and beverage executive who helped mentor and guide the Volente business.

Matt was intrigued by the concept and caught sight of the vision, generously providing his knowledge of beverages, sales, and logistics; two years later, Matt is still providing ongoing consulting and mentoring free of charge to the Mission team.

Now the Volente roasting room is up and running on the Mission campus, and roasted coffee beans are currently being sold to local individuals, churches, and businesses.

Interest has been high, and the Mission team is currently having discussions with lots of groups from local government agencies to cafes and restaurants about providing coffee on an ongoing basis. All proceeds go back into the Mission’s programs for its guests.

But success is not primarilyabout generating revenue. More importantly, every bag of coffee is roasted by homeless men and women in our long-term residential program, giving them valuable training and experience in business aspects of sales, food processing, logistics, equipment maintenance, sales, sanitation, customer service, and work ethic. We believe this will serve as a valuable resource for these individuals as they re-enter the workforce, to better equip them to provide for themselves and their families.

At this point in time, Volente has 4 offerings, all with Latin names to continue the theme: Lumen, Magnificus, Nox, and a decaf offering, Absum. All of these selections are ethically sourced and sustainably produced.

For those of you who drink coffee, why not purchase a bag of coffee that is affordable, tastes good, and helps those in our community who struggle with poverty, homelessness, addiction, and mental health.

You can purchase Volente coffee at www.volentecoffee. com Try the coffee with a mission.TM