Colorado independent coffee company brews up employment opportunities for women in recovery
For Tami Canaday, coffee has been her life's work.
"My entire background is coffee. Even in college, that is what I loved to do," says Tami.
After spending more than a decade in the corporate coffee world, Tami decided to start her own company called Wagon Coffee. Wagon is based inside of Free Recovery Community, a recovery community for addicts and loved ones of addicts which is run by Tami's husband Ryan who has been sober for 11 years, and was Tami's inspiration for starting Wagon.
"Wagon Coffee is our dealer. Our hope dealer," says Ryan with a smile. "And people get to invest in a mission that gives back."
Wagon is about more than just good beans, it's also about brewing up employment and volunteer opportunities for women in recovery.
"Back in the day, at our old space, I had women coming to me before we would have our meetings, and they'd stay after, and they were like, 'if I go home I'm going to drink, I'm going to use,'" Tami recalls. "I just felt like they were needing to find a safe space for healing, and I felt like I was able to offer that."
One of the women who is benefitting from Tami's vision is Ceara McAllister, who has been volunteering with Wagon since 2020.
"Women, we do recovery a little bit differently than men. We have a different way of relating, we feel more comfortable around other women," says McAllister. "So I think it's important to have women helping women in recovery."
In addition to Free Cafe, Wagon Coffee is sold in more than 100 different locations.
"I've said I want to be in every treatment center and sober living home here in Colorado, but then I want to spread across state lines," says Tami. She's also hoping to expand her wholesaling operation.
One of her current wholesale buyers is Telesha Padilla who is the owner and founder of Recover Stop Coffee Shop.
"It's awesome to have a partnership with Wagon because it gives us an opportunity where people are reaching out to us asking us what recovery stands for," says Padilla. "We like to explain to people when they're buying coffee that, 'hey, that coffee gets filtered back into the recovery community through our roasters.'"
As for the name "Wagon Coffee," Tami says that was intentionally.
"You've heard the term, 'fallen off the wagon.' We are being the wagon and providing employment and structure skills to women in recovery and giving back that way."
