CAF*FEINE: North Roast Coffee launches program to provide coffee for soldiers overseas

Founded in 1997, North Roast Coffee (NRC) began in the back of a small café in Kingston, Ontario. Since then, the company has expanded and become the North Roast Wholesale Roasting Facility and Coffeeco Espresso Bar – a café built inside a custom shipping container.

More recently, North Roast Coffee is celebrating the launch of a brand new coffee program for deployed members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Nine months in the making, this project has been launched with the intent to help Canadians show their support for men and women in the CAF deployed overseas.

Rich Ottenhof, the creator of the CAF*FEINE program, explained, “Around the holiday’s last winter one of our regular customers told us he was being deployed to Iraq for six months, so naturally we sent him packing with approximately 10 lbs of coffee as a gift for him and his unit.

“It didn’t take long before he contacted us saying the coffee was a huge hit and whether we could send more….so we did.”

From this success, the idea for CAF*FEINE was born.

“The CAF personnel represent the finest qualities of service and dedication to our nation and to the missions with which they’ve been tasked. Many of these missions require a long period of time away from friends and family. Deployed in far distant locations in the service of Canada. CAF*FEINE is a gift from North Roast Coffee and our customers to them,” said Ottenhof.

There are three ways to help share CAF*FEINE with members serving overseas:

• A Loyalty Rewards Program has been created where each pound of coffee purchased by rewards members totals’ points’ that can be redeemed for a pound of CAF*FEINE. This is then shipped free of charge to deployed service members. To participate, customers must visit www.northroast.com and register for the Loyalty Rewards Program by clicking the tap at the top of the homepage.
• A form has been uploaded on the North Roast website, where customers can donate some of all of their points balance to support this project.
• The final way to donate is through purchasing a pound of CAF*FEINE online or at the Kingston Roastery, and with the help of the Military Family Resource Centre, deployed CAF members will receive your donation.

“Our goal is to donate 2000 lbs of coffee per year, and we’d be thrilled to exceed that number. The lead up to Remembrance Day will generate a lot of interest in demonstrating support for CAF Members who are away from their families, doing the hard work Canada asks of them.

“We will be reaching out to our Loyalty Rewards Members directly to encourage them to participate, and I expect a big boost in donations from that point forward,” Ottenhof added.

You can register as a Loyalty Rewards Member online at www.northroast.com for more details on how to support the CAF*FEINE program.