• Community Support Introduction
• Community Support Criteria
• Community Awareness and Eduction

Bridgehead committed to supporting small-scale coffee and tea growers in global communities, but we also enjoy supporting many local community activities.

Each coffeehouse has a monthly community outreach budget. The budget is typically spent on coffee donations to support a range of community events. We also sponsor several larger community events that attracted visitors from across the Ottawa region. Some of these events and festivals have included the:

• Ottawa Folk Festival
• Ottawa River Clean Up
• Ottawa International Writer’s Festival
• Ottawa Run For the Cure
• Ottawa Jazz Festival
• Ottawa Animation Festival
• Commuter Challenge
• Ottawa Lumière Festival
• One World Film Festival

The estimated retail value of our annual local community support is $75,000.

Community Support Criteria

If you would like to submit a request for community support, please review our community support criteria below to ensure that there is a fit, then submit your request in person to the closest Bridgehead in your community.

Does your group represent a community that Bridgehead serves (e.g., an Ottawa neighbourhood where Bridgehead is located)?

Does the event/activity reflect current Bridgehead commitments, for example:

• Fair trade: events that raise awareness of what fair trade is and how it contributes to a better living standard for grower communities in developing countries
• Organics: activities and events that raise awareness of what organic means and how organic farming methods preserve the health of the environment and growers’ health
• Environmental sustainability: activities and events that raise awareness of why it’s important to sustain the health of the environment and what each of us can do to preserve the environment

Click here to download a community support request form. Choose one of two formats. [doc|pdf]

For more information on community support, email us at inquire@bridgehead.ca.

Community Awareness and Education

We are often invited by university classes and community groups to share knowledge and stories about fair trade and organics. We think that education is an important part of community outreach. If you would like us to speak to a class or group which could include a visit to a Bridgehead Coffeehouse, send us an email to inquire@bridgehead.ca.

Social Awareness

Education and advocacy is an important part of our values. We help our customers learn more about fair trade and organics and encourage them to become more conscious about how they spend their consumer dollars. We help to inform them about fair trade, fair trade products, and our network of partners and supporters. We encourage them to choose fairly traded alternatives and to request fairly traded products from other retailers. We update our customers on how their fair trade purchases have improved the lives of grower communities. This work is done in our coffeehouses, on our website, and through community speaking engagements.