WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — A new coffee house in Warner Robins is "bean-ing with meaning."
Woodlands Coffee Roasters & Café has their grand opening on Friday at 6 a.m., and it is the creation of Toni and Lance Slade.
They always wanted to own a coffee shop but were inspired to make their dream a reality after adopting their son Henson from Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras.
"We adopted our son, Henson, from Honduras. We met him 9 years ago and he's been in America for 6 and a half years," Lance said.
After bringing him to the US, they decided to do all they could to help his peers back in Honduras - and the Orphanage Coffee Project was born.
According to their website, they partner with "a local Honduran farmer known as Mr. Miyagi," and have "planted a portion of our Woodlands Coffee Roasters & Café coffee crop at our son’s former orphanage. Mr. Miyagi trains the apprentices at his coffee plantation. These “classrooms” provide the youth of Orphanage Emmanuel an invaluable education in “all the ways of coffee.”"
"We can teach those other hundreds of orphans at the orphanage a trade and a career in the field of coffee so they can support themselves and their families when they leave the orphanage at 16 years old. So we are teaching them to dream. We are teaching them how to build their futures and how to have hope. That is the why behind what we do," Toni explained.
Additionally, part of every sale goes toward helping the kids. The shop collects donations year-round to bring back to Honduras and has a container outside where folks can drop off items the orphanage needs.
"We have a huge shipping container on our property, and we are always taking donations for the orphanage youth. Good quality shoes are a big big deal, mattresses, pillows, nice clothing...we need them. As soon as we can fill that shipping container, we will be shipping it to the orphanage and we can help meet their needs," Toni said.
The Slades hope the shop will help spread love across the globe - and in their customers' hearts.
"We want every guest that enters this house to leave better than they came. The reason we have that sign above our condiment station when you leave this house is so everybody will know that they are loved and hopefully they have felt that love while they are here."
If you want to visit the shop yourself, they are open Monday - Thursday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays (with a special brunch menu!).
You can also read more about their story and order coffee on their website, linked here. It is located at 1113 Highway 96 in Kathleen.