Bob Logue and Christian Dennis grew up in the same neighborhood in Philadelphia. That’s where their paths diverged.
“I was lucky enough to be sent to good schools and college,” says Logue. “Christian ended up selling drugs on the corners.”
When they met years later, they realized they wanted to work together. They founded Quaker City Coffee to help people who’ve been through the criminal justice system reintegrate into their communities.
“We’ve both always wanted to change the environment that so many folks in the city have to deal with,” says Logue. “They deal with a lack of opportunity, they deal with being left out, they deal with poverty, they deal with racism and so much of the time all they have available to them as an economy is the illegal drug game.”
Aoife Geary spoke to Logue about their unique partnership, their vision for the future, and their win at WeWork’s Creator Awards. A longer version of this interview is available at Jobbio.
Tell us a little about Quaker City Coffee Company.
I was drawn to Christian when I met him at the local community college and heard him speak about re-entry from life in prison into society. He spoke about education, possible jobs and careers.
I knew right away he had some magic, and I asked him if he would be interested in talking to me about a project that could have a positive effect on our community. Before I knew it we formed a company and a business plan! We’ve been at it now for almost two years, but we’ve only launched within the last few months.
Why has it worked so well?
Something that Christian really emphasized to me from the start is that we can’t just give people jobs—we need to look at the whole individual, we need to look at all the things that it will take to help this person become a really great member of our team and in turn have the ability to go back to their community and have a positive impact.
That’s our mission more than anything else. We’re a support network. If you’re working with us and you’re having trouble with child support payments, housing, or personal problems, we know where to send you through the contacts we’ve built up in these communities.
What was your background before this? What’s the coffee connection?I’m a member of a number of businesses, and coffee has always been part of that. I have two cafés in Philadelphia, so then the idea of starting a coffee company was kind of obvious to me. When you’re involved in operations that are purchasing coffee, it seemed like a good idea to just roast it for yourself.
Christian pulled me aside and said: “The people we are going to be hiring have skills in marketing and sales. They’re not going to be excited about roasting coffee.” So we stripped it back and began to partner with local companies who were already roasting coffee so that we could focus on the marketing, sales, and distribution instead.
What for you has been the highlight of your journey?
Probably the best day Quaker City Coffee Company has ever had was at the Creator Awards in D.C. It was just such an exciting day. It was wonderful to embed ourselves further in the community that WeWork is and we look forward to more and more of that.
My overall personal highlight has to be my relationship with Christian and his family. Watching a man who has so much talent be able to put it to good use has been such a pleasure to be close to. I was on a conference call last night with all the partners and the most insightful, powerful, best-for-the-business comment was made by Christian. I see that day in and day out.
What’s been the biggest challenge for you?
To be honest, I haven’t had the normal strains and stresses that go along with some of my other companies because we haven’t locked ourselves into expensive leases or equipment purchases. We’ve been fortunate enough that we’ve been able to network and collaborate to get so much of that taken care of for us.
The biggest challenge up to this point—and it’s not even really a challenge, just a learning curve—is realizing what it really takes to reintegrate. This is not just about creating jobs for people, it’s about creating careers.
