If your coffee could help give a transitioning homeless veteran a job, would you want to drink that coffee?
Would you like the opportunity to be the reason a transitioning homeless veteran gets a paying job? Change where you buy your organic fair trade coffee and help us create that opportunity.
Vote Yes With Your CoffeeWe're not asking for a donation. We're asking you to change where you buy your coffee.
We're uniting like-minded coffee drinkers to help create paid jobs for transitioning homeless veterans who will prepare and ship coffee orders through our planned Dignity Distribution Center. Our broader vision includes access to a bed, shower, clean clothes, food and a pathway to housing.
The first step is finding out how many people are actually willing to become monthly customers.
Would you vote yes with your coffee?
This is a serious expression of purchase intent. We want to hear from coffee drinkers willing to switch where they buy their organic fair trade coffee and order at least three bags each month.
Filling out this form does not place an order, authorize payment or start a subscription. When UCDA is ready to accept and ship coffee orders, we will notify everyone who votes yes by email. You can then choose whether to place an order and begin a paid monthly subscription. Actual paying subscribers will be tracked separately from people who pledge their intent.
Count me in.
Please register only if you would seriously consider ordering at least three bags every month. Tell us how you would participate today. When UCDA is ready to accept and ship coffee orders, we will email you at the address you enter below so you can decide whether to place your first order and begin your subscription.
FOLLOW THE CUP
See what happens because you ordered the coffee.
You place your order. The journey begins with farmer cooperatives and coffee grown through relationships built around fair treatment. Equal Exchange roasts and packages the coffee. It then comes to the United Coffee Drinkers of America distribution operation, where participating transitioning homeless veterans receive, pack and ship customer orders. The package travels to your front door. You brew the coffee. The circle comes back to you.
The greatest cup of coffee isn't just about what's in your cup. It's about what happened because you drank it.
WHY EQUAL EXCHANGEOur coffee. Their story. A shared belief in doing business differently.
Why Equal Exchange?
Because our goal is not to find the cheapest possible way to sell coffee. It is to offer exceptional coffee from a business whose values we believe in, then build something more around every order.
A different idea from the beginning
They did not start with coffee. They started with fairness.
In 1986, Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal and Michael Rozyne founded Equal Exchange after years of asking a simple but powerful question: could international trade be organized to give farmers and workers more control over their futures?
The company's first product was coffee from Nicaragua, purchased at a time when a United States embargo made that choice difficult. The founders saw their work as a way to stand with small farmers and show that international trade could be more fair and more human.
They built a business around long-term relationships, honest trade and a belief that the people doing the work should have a voice in how their company is run.
Founded to change the rules of trade.
What began as a bold effort to connect consumers and small farmers became a worker-owned cooperative and a pioneer in the American Fair Trade movement.
Their idea: Great products and a more just economy should go hand in hand.
Why the business model matters
It matters how your coffee gets to your cup.
Fairness to farmers
Equal Exchange works with democratically organized, small-scale farmer cooperatives. Its approach emphasizes long-term relationships, fairer prices, producer financing and giving growers a stronger position in the marketplace.
Ownership by workers
Equal Exchange is a worker-owned cooperative. Its model gives worker-owners a meaningful stake and democratic voice in the business rather than concentrating control solely with outside investors.
Care in every roast
Equal Exchange sources organic and fairly traded coffees, evaluates quality through careful tasting and quality control, and roasts coffee in Massachusetts with attention to bringing out the character of the beans.
The UCDA distribution model
Equal Exchange does what they do best. We build the next part.
We are not starting another coffee roasting company. We are not trying to replace the farmer relationships, importing, sourcing expertise or roasting that Equal Exchange has spent decades building. Our plan is to bring more recurring coffee customers to their coffee while creating a separate distribution business that serves a different mission.
Equal Exchange
Sources coffee through its farmer-cooperative relationships, protects its Fair Trade values, and roasts and packages the coffee.
United Coffee Drinkers of America
Plans to receive, fulfill and ship UCDA customer orders from our own Dignity Distribution Center, creating paid work and a path toward greater stability for transitioning homeless veterans.
As our customer base grows, we aim to bring additional orders to Equal Exchange's roasting business. We intend to build the distribution center and workforce needed to handle our customer fulfillment. That is the piece UCDA is creating.
Their coffee helps support farming communities. Our distribution model is designed to create opportunity for veterans. The customer makes both possible.
Our distribution center, veteran jobs and projected order volumes are development goals, not completed operations or guaranteed production capacity. This page describes UCDA's reasons for choosing Equal Exchange and our planned role in the supply chain.
THE MISSION
It is not what your coffee can do for you. It is what your coffee can do for America.
UCDA is building a coffee distribution model designed to create paid work, stability and a path toward housing for veterans transitioning out of homelessness. The first operating goal is 22 participating veterans working approximately 30 hours a week at $30 an hour as the movement grows toward 30,000 participating coffee drinkers.
OUR PUBLIC BUSINESS PLAN · THE BOSTON COFFEE PARTY
We created this coffee company for one purpose: to end homelessness, starting with our veterans.
The United Coffee Drinkers of America is a for-profit coffee distribution business with a mission-first commitment: 100% of net profits are dedicated to ending homelessness, starting with veterans. We are not asking you to give up coffee. We are inviting you to change where you buy it.
How a morning cup can lead to lasting change
You choose a different coffee company.
Our planned offer starts with three bags of organic fair trade coffee each month at $17.76 per bag, plus $3.50 handling, with shipping included. That is $56.78 total. Interested customers can instead choose a $60 rounded-up total, $63.50 ($20 per bag plus handling), $70, $80, $100, or any custom monthly total starting at $56.78. Those amounts are entirely voluntary, with no upper limit on the interest form. When paid subscriptions launch, customers will be able to cancel before their next renewal without a long-term commitment.
Customer orders create a reason to employ veterans.
As actual paid subscriptions and revenue grow, our first major employment goal is 22 veterans preparing and shipping coffee orders, with planned pay of $30 per hour for 30 hours each week. Employment depends on sufficient funding and operations being in place.
We build the Dignity Distribution Center.
Our vision begins in Boston: a workplace that also helps connect veterans to practical essentials such as showers, clean clothing, food and a pathway toward stable housing. These facilities and services are planned, not yet operating.
Net profits go toward ending homelessness.
Revenue first covers coffee, fulfillment, packaging, shipping, wages, rent and other legitimate operating expenses. The remaining net profit is committed to projects that advance our mission to end homelessness, beginning with veterans.
Our promise of transparency
We want founding coffee drinkers to see the plan, question the numbers and follow the results. As UCDA launches and grows, we intend to publish real subscriber and employment counts, operating expenses, net profits and how mission funds are used.
Plans are not results. The 30,000 founding subscribers, 22 veteran jobs and Dignity Distribution Center are goals we are organizing toward, not achievements we are claiming have already happened.
UCDA is a for-profit business, not a charity. Coffee purchases and any optional amount above the standard price are payments for products, not tax-deductible charitable donations. The suggested and custom monthly totals are statements of interest, not active checkout prices or donations. Completing the Vote Yes form expresses interest only; no order, charge or subscription is created by the form. UCDA intends to offer cancellable monthly subscriptions with no long-term lock-in when launched.
MEET THE FOUNDER · TOM BARNES
I know what it means to need a way forward.
I was homeless when I was 19 years old. I know what it means to need a way forward, to need someone to give you an opportunity and to know that your life can change.
I've traveled to 21 different countries so far. I've met people from different cultures, witnessed struggles and kindness, and learned that no matter where we live, we all want the same things for the people we love: health, dignity, opportunity and hope.
The day I became the answer to someone's prayers.
One of the experiences that changed my life happened in Bali, Indonesia. I met an Australian couple, Patrick and Jenny, who were helping children born with cleft palates. I learned that surgery could transform these children's lives. I decided to personally pay for surgery for three children.
At a hospital in Denpasar, I met the children and their families. Parents and grandparents held onto me and cried. Through Patrick and Jenny, I came to understand what they were saying. They believed I had been sent to them by God. In their eyes, I was the answer to their prayers.
That experience didn't end at the hospital. At INDO, our shop in Provincetown, we began selling little beaded rings for $3 each. Customers bought those rings knowing what their purchase could do. Over 16 months, we raised enough money to help pay for cleft palate surgeries for 100 children. It wasn't just my effort anymore. People I had never met were helping families on the other side of the world.
I brought that idea home to Boston.
In 2011, I opened Boston Brewin' Organic Coffee. The idea was simple. Every ordinary purchase could do something extraordinary for somebody else. We didn't need customers to stop drinking coffee or buying breakfast. We wanted what they already bought to make a difference.
Iced coffee and espresso
Every iced coffee and espresso we sold supported a literacy program in Nicaragua. A cup of coffee in Boston could help people learn to read in another country.
Pastries from Haley House
All our pastries came from Haley House, a Boston nonprofit with roughly 50 years of experience feeding people experiencing homelessness and strengthening the local community.
Chai made by Karen Downs
All our chai was made by Karen Downs. Karen dedicated 100% of her net profits from that chai to the Elizabeth Stone House in Jamaica Plain, supporting women and families rebuilding their lives.
It was never just about coffee. It was about creating a business where the customer, simply by choosing where to spend their money, could become part of the solution. In 2015, our community proved the idea again when two days of net proceeds, $1,059.35, helped provide desks and chairs for the Donald McKay School.
Now imagine what we could do together.
That is the thinking behind The United Coffee Drinkers of America and the Boston Coffee Party. What if tens of thousands of people changed where they buy their coffee, and that decision helped give transitioning homeless veterans paid work, dignity and a path toward a home?
Why I created this coffee company
This is Answer to a Prayer Coffee.
I created this coffee so that the person drinking it can have the opportunity to become the answer to somebody else's prayers.
Somewhere, a veteran is hoping for a job, a safe place to sleep, and a chance to start again. I want our coffee to help turn those hopes into real opportunities. Not because a cup of coffee is a miracle on its own, but because thousands of us choosing where we buy our coffee can help build the jobs, the distribution center, and the pathway forward.
We are building UCDA to dedicate 100% of net profits to ending homelessness, starting with our veterans. The coffee brings us together. The chance to change another person's life is why this business exists.
Tom Barnes
Founder & President, United Coffee Drinkers of America
From personal experience to a public mission
- Age 19 · Experienced homelessnessI learned firsthand how important opportunity, stability and dignity can be.
- 21 countries · A wider perspectiveTraveling the world taught me how much we share and how deeply a small act of kindness can matter.
- Indonesia · Three children's surgeriesAfter helping pay for three cleft palate surgeries, I met families who told me I had been the answer to their prayers.
- INDO · One hundred children's surgeriesCustomers buying $3 beaded rings helped fund surgeries for 100 children in 16 months.
- 2011 · Boston Brewin' Organic CoffeeIced coffee and espresso supported literacy in Nicaragua. Pastries came from Haley House. Karen Downs's chai supported the Elizabeth Stone House through 100% of her net profits.
- 2015 · A proven local exampleA two-day community effort through the coffee business generated $1,059.35 in net proceeds for desks and chairs at the Donald McKay School.
- December 16, 2025 · UCDA launchedOn the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a new Boston Coffee Party was created with the mission of ending homelessness, starting with veterans.
- Next · 30,000 founding coffee drinkersBuild recurring demand, launch the planned Dignity Distribution Center and pursue the first 22 veteran jobs.
COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY
See where the money goes.
If we're asking you to participate, you deserve to know where the money goes. UCDA is committed to showing how revenue is used, including coffee, shipping, distribution, participating veteran paychecks, operating expenses, housing initiatives, food, mentorship and the mission. As real operating data becomes available, this is where financial updates will be published.
It all starts with you, the coffee drinker. It starts with your order. It starts with you.
CHOOSE YOUR COFFEEThe growing future vision · United Coffee Drinkers of America
Not just somewhere to live. A home that feels like a retreat.
Our mission begins by creating paid work and dignity for transitioning homeless veterans in Boston. But we want to build something beyond a distribution center: a welcoming lakeside community where veterans can have beautiful, comfortable homes and the chance to enjoy life again.
We hope to find a large, suitable piece of land on a lake, with enough room to develop several thoughtfully designed homes, peaceful outdoor spaces and shared places where people can gather. We want the setting to feel restorative and full of possibility, with water, trees, nature and the everyday comforts of home. This is a vision for real housing, not simply a vacation getaway or a weekend retreat.
Several wonderful homes
Comfortable bedrooms, inviting living spaces, practical kitchens and thoughtful furnishings. We want homes that people are proud to live in, where comfort and dignity are part of daily life.
Canoes, kayaks and fresh air
A lakefront setting with opportunities for canoeing, kayaking, walking, quiet reflection and simply enjoying nature. Not merely shelter, but room to breathe and rebuild.
A place to belong
Shared gathering spaces and an environment that encourages connection, wellbeing and personal growth. Our goal is a community where people can feel safe, valued and at home.
How we hope to get there
Grow recurring coffee orders and develop the planned Boston Dignity Distribution Center, where veteran employees can receive, fulfill and ship coffee orders.
As the business develops the financial capacity, seek lakefront land suitable for several residences, create a responsible development plan and pursue the approvals and partnerships needed to make the housing vision real.
Potential future partnerships
We want great companies helping us create great places to live and work.
We plan to explore partnerships with companies that know how to make spaces beautiful, functional and welcoming. Two companies we would love to approach are IKEA and Wayfair, which is based in Boston. Those conversations could support more than the lakeside homes. We also want to furnish the coffee shop, offices, community spaces and other facilities connected to our distribution operation.
A possible partner for practical, comfortable furniture and thoughtful interiors in the homes and shared spaces we hope to develop.
A hometown company we hope to approach about furnishing homes as well as business and retail environments, including a future UCDA coffee shop.
Partnership status: IKEA and Wayfair are prospective companies we would like to work with. No sponsorship, furniture donation or business commitment from either company is being announced here.
Where we are today: We have not selected or acquired a lakefront property, built these homes, or secured financing for this stage. Any property must be evaluated for residential zoning, lakefront and environmental rules, access, infrastructure, funding and required approvals. This is the direction we want to grow in, not a promise that a particular property or construction plan is already secured.
WORKING TOGETHER
From the farmer to your front door.
UCDA connects coffee drinkers, farmer cooperatives, roasting, fulfillment and the mission. Equal Exchange is the coffee roaster partner, and Brush with Bamboo is part of the growing partnership network supporting the movement. As UCDA grows, we also hope to explore future furnishing partnerships with Boston-based Wayfair and IKEA for the homes and coffee shop spaces we envision. Neither is a confirmed partner.
HOW IT WORKS
Simple by design.
Why $17.76 per bag?
Because 1776 was the year America declared its independence. $17.76 is the minimum participation level per bag and connects the price directly to the identity of the United Coffee Drinkers of America.
What is the minimum order?
Three bags. Customers can choose their coffee and participate at the level they choose.
Can I choose a larger monthly total, even $1 million?
Yes. The standard three bag price is $56.78 per month including $3.50 handling and shipping. You can indicate interest in rounding up to $60, $70, $80, $100 or any custom total starting at $56.78. There is no upper limit on the amount you can express interest in paying for coffee. A $1 million monthly purchase is a hypothetical example, not a commitment from any person.
Can I cancel my coffee subscription?
Yes. Our planned paid monthly subscriptions will be cancellable at any time before the next renewal, without a long-term contract. Cancellation will stop future renewals. The Vote Yes form is not a subscription and does not charge you.
Can I leave a tip?
UCDA's purchase experience is designed to include an optional voluntary tip. All tips received by UCDA are intended to be used to further the mission.
Does UCDA already own land for the future homes?
No. Our future vision is to identify a suitable lakefront property where several comfortable homes, peaceful outdoor spaces and community facilities could be developed. We have not selected or purchased a property. Any project would depend on funding, zoning, waterfront protections and required approvals. Our first step is establishing the Boston distribution center and paid veteran jobs.
Are IKEA and Wayfair already sponsoring UCDA?
No. IKEA and Boston-based Wayfair are examples of companies we hope to approach about potential furnishings partnerships for future homes, shared spaces and coffee shop or business furniture. No partnership or donation is currently being represented as confirmed.