Nonprofit coffee shop Well Grounded Coffee Community is expected to open Dec. 14 in the Casa Linda neighborhood of East Dallas.
The faith-based shop will employ mothers who were formerly incarcerated and are rehabilitating their lives via a Dallas nonprofit named Exodus Ministries. So far, the co-presidents of Well Grounded have hired two women who will serve as the shop’s baristas.
“This is a starting business to give people a second chance,” says Natalie Huscheck, the co-president and an East Dallas resident.
The idea was inspired by the Delancey Street Foundation, which started nearly 50 years ago in California. The Delancey Street Foundation’s mission is to provide opportunities for “people in poverty, substance abusers, former felons, and others who have hit bottom,” according to its website. It started with just four people but has since worked with 18,000. Huscheck says she is “fascinated” by their model and is taking inspiration from it. She hopes Well Grounded can start small but grow to employ other formerly incarcerated women.
It was a “natural start” to begin with a coffee shop, given that she and her husband, co-president Michael Huscheck, are “coffee freaks.” But eventually, the nonprofit could support people in other businesses, in the restaurant industry or beyond.
“We’re open to helping the marginalized in Dallas,” Natalie says.
Keeping with the shop’s theme of second chances, customers will find tables and chairs from the now-closed Highland Park Cafeteria inside the Casa Linda coffee shop. It’ll be a charming touch for East Dallas dwellers.
Natalie says the shop will operate on four pillars: work, education, community and faith.
“We’ll do a lot of things, not just serve coffee,” she says. She plans to teach the women from Exodus Ministries how to use a computer and learn bookkeeping, if they don’t already know how.
She hopes the staffers at Well Grounded are shown “pure love and compassion.” The Huschecks are Christians and say they want to “walk this journey” with women in need.
From the outside looking in, Well Grounded is designed to look like any other coffee shop, and Natalie hopes their coffee products — lattes, iced drinks and the like — are competitive with some of the city’s best.
They will be using Dallas shop Full City Rooster’s coffee beans, and Natalie Huscheck says she has leaned on them heavily to learn the coffee business. Well Grounded will also sell soup from Maya’s Modern Mediterranean; sandwiches made on Empire Baking Company bread; keto cheesecakes from And I Like It; and vegan and gluten-free pastries from Unrefined Bakery. All are Dallas-area companies.
Well Grounded Coffee Community is at 9219 Garland Road, Dallas. It’s expected to open Dec. 14, 2020.
