Ask the Roaster (Corona Update): Thanks and Free Coffee
Carrie Masek
The governor of Illinois has extended the stay-at-home order to April 30. Since coffee roasting and all other food manufacturing are considered essential industries, we will continue custom roasting coffee and shipping it fresh to our customers’ doors throughout the duration of the stay-at-home order. This is the weekly update to let you know how it’s going.
A couple of weeks ago, we implemented the changes necessary to continue doing business during the pandemic, but the reason we’re still roasting coffee is you, our customers. Thank you for your continued business, your patience and the many well wishes we’ve received during the stay-at-home order. We read every note and every one lifts our spirits.
Thank you also to the many people working in essential jobs, the ones who face a higher risk of catching Covid-19 while they keep the lights on, the water running, and the groceries stores filled. Thank you to postal workers, long-haul truckers and everyone working for a delivery service. Thank you to the doctors, nurses, orderlies and other hospital workers who face an even greater risk to care for those who are already sick. There are so many people who deserve our thanks, the problem is how to say it to them all.
Our favorite way to say, “Thank you!” is with coffee. While we have a lot of coffee in our warehouse , we don’t have enough to send coffee to everyone we’d like to thank. What we can do is send extra coffee* when one of those people places an order.
From now until the stay-at-home order is lifted in Illinois (current estimate, April 30), we will include an extra 1/2 roast of Thank You Coffee at no extra charge with any order made by an essential worker. Just leave us a note in the box for Additional Instructions or send us an email and let us know the important work you’re doing. "I'm a nurse in an ICU" or "I run a restaurant that's preparing meals and delivering them to senior citizens," for instance. We’ll roast the coffee you ordered, the additional 1/2 roast of free coffee, and mail it all with our most sincere thanks.
If you are an essential worker, please let us thank you in this way. If you know an essential worker who loves coffee, we’d love to send a bag of Thank You Coffee for them. Just tell us about them. “My brother is an EMT,” for instance, or “My neighbor is a biomedical researcher working on a vaccine.” We’ll add the free 1/2 roast of Thank You Coffee to your order. All we ask is you find a socially-distant, safe way to give them the coffee. Sharing good coffee really is our favorite way to say, “Thanks!”
Is an essential worker making your life easier during the Covid-19 pandemic? Please join the conversation and tell us about them. You can share your thoughts on the Facebook thread or in a comment on this blog. Or, if you have thoughts about coffee you’d like to share with the wider world, leave us a coffee review on Google or on your favorite review site. Not only do we value your opinions, but reviews help more people find us. Help us connect coffee lovers to fresh, quality coffee!
We wish all our customers good health and calm in this anxious time.
~ Carrie, Paul and all of us at Coffee by the Roast
*We can only afford to send one free 1/2 roast of coffee per order. If you know more than one essential worker (we do!), please share the coffee love and let them know about us and the coffee we'd like to share with them. Thanks!