Photography Courtesy of Quaker City Coffee
By Claire Marie Porter
Despite what you might have heard, the coffee scene isn’t just for hipsters, says Bob Logue.
Quaker City Coffee, which Logue launched with Christian Dennis in 2017, sells wholesale coffee and provides office catering. It was founded around the idea that everyone—returning citizens included—should be able to work in the fair trade coffee industry.
Dennis had just gotten out of prison when he and Logue first met. Logue, who is also the co-owner of Bodhi Coffee and Federal Donuts, met Dennis in 2015 at the ReEntry Support Project, a program designed for returning citizens, at its commencement ceremony at the Community College of Philadelphia.
Dennis, who had served time in prison, shared his story at the event. Logue was struck by his speech.
“I thought, ‘This man has so much poise, this man has so much grace,’” recalls Logue. “He has a tremendous amount of gratitude.”
Logue, moved by Dennis’ story, approached him after the commencement. They exchanged numbers and have been like family ever since, Logue says.
After several meetups, the two decided to go into business together, with a mission to intentionally seek out and employ people like Dennis. Logue says it was a lightbulb moment, the idea of creating a company that uses the skillsets of people who have been involved in illegal businesses, namely selling drugs, and utilize those skills in a legal business.
“We live in a huge city, but it’s really two separate cities that are constantly pushing at each other,” he says. “The resentment, fear and anxiety of gentrification—the folks who feel simply left out.”
Logue and Dennis both grew up in Frankford, but Logue says it’s like they lived in two totally different neighborhoods because of a mix of factors, including systemic racism, a lack of equal employment opportunities and poverty.
“My heart has always been where I’m from,” says Logue. “I appreciate the fact that so many people have moved to Philadelphia, and our tax base has increased. But a lot of the folks from where I grew up aren’t getting a piece of that.”
This is how the pair came up with the idea of Quaker City Coffee Company, a business that would place formerly incarcerated people in a steady job, in an effort to reduce recidivism in a city that has one of the highest incarceration rates in the United States.
They partnered with many Philadelphia organizations, including the Center for Carceral Communities, the Adult Probation and Parole Department and the Mayor’s Office of Reintegration Services. Through their nonprofit partnerships they’ve managed to place returning citizens in jobs, selling and distributing coffee from Philly Fair Trade Roasters. Since its beginning, the coffee company has employed six formerly incarcerated employees. Dennis and Logue manage sales and product distribution.
The name comes from the idea of Philadelphia once being a thriving Quaker city, an “industrial superstar” in the 1800s and early 1900s, says Logue, when the city was built around small businesses.
“Maybe we can bring back some of that energy again,” says Logue, “for the citizens here and now.”
Logue says navigating the obstacles embedded in re-entry from the criminal justice system hasn’t been easy, and the company has been through many iterations, from being a simple brick-and-mortar retail company to a wholesale one.
For a company like theirs, flexibility is essential, Logue says. They describe it as a “profit-sharing” company, which means the strategy is not so much to make profits for the ownership, but to help its employees reintegrate and become part of a prospering community. The company emphasizes financial literacy.
“It might mean sacrificing most of our bottom line,” says Logue, “but we’re willing to take that risk.”
