Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a family-owned chain of specialty coffee and tea stores based in Southern California, announces today that it will host its third annual “Support from Home” campaign in stores from July 1 to September 8. With “Support from Home” The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, aims to connect team members and customers with veterans and active duty troops worldwide.
This program works in three ways: From July 1 to September 8, for each bag of “Support from Home Blend” sold, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will send a bag of the coffee blend to troops far away from home. Customers are invited to write a heartfelt note on the bag of coffee the soldier will receive, letting him or her know how much we appreciate what they do for us each and every day. When the customer gives, so does The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf; for each bag of donated coffee, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will give $1 to The Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit organization which supports injured veterans and their families. And, for the first time this year, customers who purchase the “Support from Home Blend” will receive a “support from home” keychain. When customers show their very special keychain to a Coffee Bean team member, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will donate 10 percent of their beverage purchase to The Fisher House.
“The ‘Support from Home’ initiative started out as a grass roots effort by a store manager in Arizona,” explains district manager Lynda Baker who helped spearhead the campaign. “Coffee is not something that is readily available to troops overseas, so we wanted to do what we could to bring some comfort to them. Our customers embraced the promotion and the program grew exponentially, with some buying four or five pounds of coffee at a time. Anytime our customers get behind something like this, the sky’s the limit!”
Now an annual company-wide promotion, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf hopes to surpass last year’s donation of over 20,000 bags of coffee and $20,000 to The Fisher House Foundation. “Soldiers’ Angels and The Fisher House Foundation step in to provide support for our troops and their families who are often overlooked,” said Tim Casey vice president of marketing and operations. “This promotion always drums up so much excitement from both our team members and customers each year and is 100% in synch with our corporate culture of giving back. With the addition of the support tags this year, we are hoping to donate even more.”
The “Support from Home Blend” is a pre-ground blend of medium roast coffee with flavor notes of cherry and chocolate. It is available in a one pound bag for $9.95. Letters of gratitude The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf receives from the troops are posted in stores for customers to enjoy. Coffee donations are tax deductable and deliveries to overseas troops facilitated through the organization Soldiers’ Angels, which coordinates the delivery of donated goods to U.S. Armed Forces deployed around the world.
