Today is Cyber Monday, the day you get to shop deals from the comfort of your own personal computer or smartphone. And buy you shall! We’ve even put together a helpful guide of some of the best coffee deals on the internet.
But in an effort to balance out our consumeristic tendencies—or at least put them to better use—the Bay Area’s Equator Coffees is holding a Holiday Coat Drive to benefit kids and adults in need.
Taking place at all eight Bay Area locations, Equator has partnered with three locally-focused agencies to help distribute new coats to those in need: “Adopt a Family Marin, [who] works to prevent homelessness in Marin and fills holiday gift lists for families with children, Tenderloin Community Development Corporation, who manages low-income properties around the city and also does healthy corner store and after school programs, and East Bay Agency for Children, who works to prevent and reduce the impact of social inequities through trauma-informed education and after school programs,” per Equator.
“We are asking our cafe regulars to pick up an extra coat during their holiday shopping for someone who needs one locally. We live and work in one of the most economically divided regions of the country, and the regulars at our cafes are those who can afford the luxury of specialty coffee,” Director of Coffee Culture Devorah Freudiger tells Sprudge, “they likely don’t think twice about purchasing a coat for themselves or their families and would probably be moved to find the money to pick up an extra one if they knew about the need.”
Freudiger notes that donating a coat does more than simply keep the recipient warm (though really that in and of itself is enough to make the donation worth it), it can also help those struggling to keep a roof over their head. This is the time of year when folks—all folks—run the risk of overspending; those in tighter financial situations are the ones most affected by this, as the threat of not being able to make rent the next month is an all too real circumstance. By filling wish-lists for those in need locally, which Freudiger states more often than not includes a coat, donors are helping ease the financial burden that goes part and parcel with this time of year, allowing families to hold onto more of their rent money.
The Equator Holiday Coat Drive is taking place now through December 19th. New coats can be dropped off at any of the eight Bay Area locations. For more information, visit Equator Coffees’ Instagram.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Top image via Equator Coffees
Disclosure: Equator Coffee is an advertising partner with the Sprudge Media Network
