1951 Coffee Company

1951 Coffee Company’s (1951) mission is to promote the wellbeing of the refugee community in the San Francisco Bay Area by providing job training and employment to refugees and asylees while educating the surrounding community about refugee life and issues. 1951’s name derives from the 1951 Refugee Convention where the United Nations (UN) defined and set forth the guidelines for the protection of refugees. The UN defines a refugee as someone who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself to the protection of that country. 1951 was founded in 2015 and accomplishes its mission through a Barista Training Program in Oakland, CA, that provides immediately marketable job skills for up to 40 refugees a year and through employment for 10 – 15 refugees annually at the 1951 Coffee Shop in Berkeley, CA.