The concept of community is hugely important within the coffee industry. Coffee shops are considered classic examples of “third places”—spaces where people gather outside of the home and the workplace—and many, from small stores to large chains, promote themselves as community hubs. Building community takes many forms, from hosting book clubs and latte art throwdowns to sponsoring local nonprofits and simply offering a place for neighborhood residents to get together.
Over the past two months, coffee shops in Minnesota have had to adapt their approach to community building in response to the federal government’s Operation Metro Surge, during which thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have been deployed to the state. The surge has captured international attention, particularly following the killings of two U.S. citizens—Renée Nicole Good on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti on Jan. 24—by government agents.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has called the surge the “largest immigration operation ever,” while Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison described it as “in essence, a federal invasion.”
ICE agents—many of whom wear masks, making identification difficult—have detained people off the street and transferred them to detention centers thousands of miles away from where they were picked up. In response to watching their neighbors get snatched without a warrant or an explanation, communities have begun organizing to defend themselves, building school patrols and mutual aid networks, and spontaneously protesting.
Despite the silence from many big chains, independent coffee shops have also stepped up. Many have become donation hubs for food and other essentials as people hide in their homes to avoid being picked up by agents. Others have hosted community groups or handed out whistles, which have been used to alert neighbors to the presence of ICE. Some have also started giving away free coffee to protestors or, in one case, switched to a completely free, donation-based model as a form of protest against the occupation.
Many coffee companies might profess their belief in the power of community, but it is the independent cafes and coffee shops of Minnesota that are turning those platitudes into real action.
Fear and Uncertainty
ICE agents began showing up in Minnesota in early December, arresting people without warrants as part of a targeted surge in the state. Residents of the Twin Cities have been protesting in response, often recording and legally observing ICE agents when they try to detain someone. Three thousand agents have swarmed Minneapolis-St. Paul, outnumbering local police and disrupting everyday life in the Twin Cities.
“The past couple of months have honestly been heavy, emotionally and operationally,” says Vanessa Palestino, founder of Hola Coffee in Minneapolis. “As a Latina-owned small business, this isn’t something happening ‘around’ us—it’s happening within our own community. Our staff, our customers, our neighbors, many of them are directly impacted or living with real fear and uncertainty right now.”
Thousands of people have been detained in Minnesota over the past two months, often illegally, many of them children. More are in hiding, afraid to leave their homes to go to work or school, or to run errands.
Jackson O’Brien, a writer and coffee ambassador for the Minneapolis-based Peace Coffee, has experienced this violence first hand. “I was walking to the library and on my way encountered some ICE action, with a crowd of observers and protesters. I just kind of walked up and started joining in,” he says. “They sprayed gas pellets into the area, and so I got the hell out of there. I was just going to the library, and I got tear gassed.”
Despite this, O’Brien says the community is more cohesive than ever. “There are people constantly checking in with each other, and that level of community cohesion feels like it’s keeping everybody safe. We’re all in this together, and I firmly believe that we are stronger than they are.”
Coffee Shops Stepping Up
Within many neighborhoods, local coffee shops have become key community hubs. “Our customers come from all backgrounds, so it makes us sad to hear from them that they are scared to leave the house and potentially deal with ICE profiling them, even if they are U.S. citizens,” says Jenny Nguyen, co-founder of Càphin Minneapolis. In September, the Supreme Court ruled that immigration officers can stop people based on factors like ethnicity or if they speak English with an accent.
To help those unable to leave their homes, Càphin teamed up with local content creators to host a donation drive, using its soon-to-open second location as a collection hub. “The response has been so overwhelmingly positive,” Nguyen says. “We’ve even reached people out on the East Coast who donated through Walmart Delivery and monetary donations. This community is so strong, whether people are from Minnesota or not.”
Sip of Silk is a Palestinian-Salvadoran cafe that opened near the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis in early November. Co-founder Hanan Wazwaz says that it has stocked Know Your Rights cards since opening, because “the anti-Somali rhetoric was already starting.”
At least part of the justification for the government’s Operation Metro Surge were allegations of fraud targeting Minnesota’s Somali community. President Trump ramped up the racist rhetoric in December, calling Somali immigrants “garbage” and suggesting they are “destroying Minnesota.”
“We were telling people, ‘We stand with our Somali neighbors,’” Wazwaz says. “We had Know Your Rights cards in Somali, because even though most of the Somali community here are Americans, some of the elders don’t know the language.”
In January, the cafe started a food drive in partnership with the Minnesota Immigrant Movement, and began seeing an increase in engagement with their resources. “I think a lot of people in the community that can’t go to protest, or that can’t do patrolling, they feel good doing something, bringing food in, handing out whistles, etc.,” Wazwaz says.
Free Coffee, Free Food
Like other coffee shops, Pilllar Forum, a skate shop, coffee bar, and all-ages music venue in Minneapolis, has become a place of refuge for locals who are out in the cold protecting their neighbors from ICE. “We’ve kind of become a community hub for people patrolling the streets,” owner Corey Bracken says. “They come in, they get warm. They’re able to drink coffee, hang out, and organize.”
On Jan. 23, hundreds of businesses across Minnesota shut for the day in protest of ICE activity, and thousands of people participated in rallies and a general strike. Many coffee shops closed in support of the strike, while some, like Pilllar, stayed open to offer a place for protesters to get warm. “We kept our doors open,” Bracken says. “I probably poured over 300 cups [of free coffee].” It did the same thing the next week during the nationwide protests.
Modern Times Café, a restaurant in South Minneapolis, decided to offer a pay-what-you-can option for food and free drip coffee in the week leading up to the first strike. “I reached out to [Wonderstate Coffee, their wholesale supplier] and was like, ‘Here’s what we’re doing,’” says Modern Times owner Dylan Alverson. “And they were very gracious about it, and sent us coffee.”
A day after the strike, agents shot and killed Pretti. Alverson decided to go further. “Until this occupation is over, we are Post Modern Times,” the company wrote on Instagram. “Post Modern Times is free for all with the exception of our occupiers!”
The move was an act of protest against ICE’s presence, as well as an attempt to help those who have lost income or can’t leave their homes because of it. “I just couldn’t come back to work and try to run a for-profit restaurant and expect my staff to come in and do their jobs as if nothing had happened,” Alverson says. “So I decided to make a radical change, and I guess a gamble on humanity, and offer everything for free, with the idea that people would support it.”
The response was immediate and “overwhelmingly positive,” he says. “We’re just inundated with emails and messages of support, people giving money, people coming to eat at the restaurant, paying for more than they would have.”
‘A Small Pocket of Warmth’
ICE’s occupation of Minnesota shows no sign of stopping. On Jan. 31, a federal judge denied a request from state officials for a preliminary injunction to temporarily block the operation. At the same time, there have been reports that ICE is looking to enact similar “surges” in other cities, notably Springfield, Ohio, where Trump and others in the administration have previously targeted the city’s Haitian community with racist conspiracies.
Coffee shops should prepare. In a recent article for VinePair, beer writer Dave Infante wrote that the response from the Twin Cities’ beer scene should offer lessons for the rest of the industry. “Start thinking about what your plan is right now,” labor organizer Anders Bloomquist told Infante.
But as coffee companies in Minnesota have shown, preparing can also mean creating a space for community to flourish. In the midst of a turbulent, traumatic federal assault on their state, Minnesota’s coffee companies have shown that they are there for their communities in many ways. This includes supporting their neighbors with free coffee or acting as donation hubs, but it also means offering a place to recharge and connect with fellow community members.
At Hola Coffee, Palestino continues to host dance parties. “Especially right now, joy and community aren’t luxuries—they’re necessities,” she says. “There’s something really powerful about sharing a cup of coffee or dancing with your neighbors during a stressful time. It reminds us of our humanity. If we can offer even a small pocket of warmth or relief in someone’s day, that feels meaningful.”
Photo by Eastman Childs on Unsplash
