"When I was in college, we were put on teams and expected to create something. One team staged on a huge weekend event, one team started a church, and another team switched ideas so many times that I don’t know if they ever actually accomplished anything. [*laughs*] Our team decided we wanted to do something that would last for a very long time and would impact a lot of people’s lives. We thought about a music venue or an art gallery, but conversation was such a big part of what we wanted to do that we finally decided on opening a coffee shop. There’s a lot of harshness in this world, so we wanted to create a place where everyone is 100 percent welcome. Most of us here really love God, and we believe that should be reflected in how we treat people. One thing we’ve starting doing every semester is raising awareness about Memphis organizations that are doing good. We raise money, usually through our tips, and donate it to help with causes like homelessness, veterans, the environment, or domestic abuse. Our philosophy is pretty simple. We believe God wants us to love people, so that’s what we try to do. That’s it."
Becca Skaggs and Jaron Weidner are co-owners of Avenue Coffee (a 501c3 nonprofit) at 86 Echles Street near the University of Memphis.
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