Inclusivity has been one of the most talked-about issues in the coffee industry over the past few years. Specialty coffee has been historically a white male-dominated affair—even more so in terms of visibility—but there has been a veritable movement to increase equity in the industry, thanks in no small part to #coffeetwitter. Recently, these efforts have codified into the Coffee Equity Toolkit, a resource library created to “make coffee more inclusive and accessible to people from all backgrounds and all segments of the industry.”
Created by Jenn Chen and RJ Joseph—both of whom have contributed to Sprudge previously—the Coffee Equity Toolkit provides links to articles covering a range of social issues and business topics as they affect the coffee industry, including: racism, sexism, intersectionality, transphobia, language, conflict management, and customer service. Each article in some way “details how to improve the coffee industry and strengthen those within it, especially those from marginalized backgrounds or demographics.”
Articles are sourced from a range of media outlets, some coffee-specific some not. The Harvard Business Review, Ebony, The Toast, Forbes, The Roasters Guild, Sprudge, The Chocolate Barista, Tales of the Cocktail, Eater, JStor—each article was selected by the creators, categorized, and collated to better help address issues of inequality faced in the coffee industry today.
The ultimate goal is for the information to be crowd sourced, with new recourses being added through group participation. For guidelines on how to add content and what to add (this isn’t the space for “brewing guides, manufacturers manuals, job recruitment, or debates on feminism”), visit the Coffee Equity Toolkit’s Content Guidelines.
There’s a lot of really good material out there for anyone who is looking to engage, and the Coffee Equity Toolkit is making it that much easier to find.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
