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WHO WE ARE
Burial Grounds Coffee Collective is a worker-owned cafe, community space, and coffee roaster in Olympia, Washington. Our doors first opened on Washington Street in 2010, and we re-opened as a collective at our current location in early 2020. Shortly thereafter, we started roasting our own coffee.
Our mission is to provide a welcoming environment to anyone who walks through our doors. Our core collective values include sustainability, accessibility, mutual respect, and nourishment. We strive to provide a safer space for those looking to read, study, work, meet, gather, and play. Or, simply sit back and enjoy a locally made snack or handcrafted beverage, be it classic cafe fare or something one of a kind (and spooky!) from our special menus.
Our space features an expansive library of both books and zines to read, and games to play while you hang out. We also host a variety of both weekly and one-off events in our space.
We're staying right here until the coffee runs dry.
PAY IT FORWARD
In order to align with many of our core collective values, as well as carrying on a long time Burial Grounds tradition, we always accept funds to maintain a pay it forward program. This allows community members who are otherwise unable to purchase these goods to access daily either a cup of coffee, tea or soda, and a cup of soup or chips in addition to a space to just be. We also offer secured device charging and essential goods supplied by Partners in Prevention Education (PiPE). You can contribute to this fund any time, either along with your coffee purchase in person, in our webstore, or you can set up a monthly donation here.
ROASTING
In December of 2020, our collective took over ownership of our longtime roaster (formerly Firefly Coffee) in Olympia WA, and began our journey of sourcing fair trade and organic coffee. Many of the folks you see working behind the counter are the same people who are roasting the coffee you know and love! While our offerings vary due to season and availability, we currently carry beans from the ACPC Pichanaki Cooperative in Peru, Yaxcoffee Cooperative in Chiapas Mexico, Café Orgánico Marcala (COMSA) in Marcala La Paz Honduras, as well as swiss water process Cascadia blend for decaf. For wholesale inquiries, please email burialgroundscoop@gmail.com
WORKER-OWNED
"A worker cooperative is a democratically controlled business owned by its worker-owners. A worker cooperative is organized to serve the needs of its worker-owners by generating benefits for the worker-owners rather than external investors". Our collective is comprised of workers who are deeply invested in our community, and who often take on a number of other related endeavors. Some of us have been around Burials Grounds as customers or workers for as long as a decade! Keeping the cafe moving along is a labor of love. We are eternally grateful for the assistance and guidance provided by the Northwest Cooperative Development Center in our transition into being a worker-owned collective! We are so lucky to be among the ranks of Olympia's collectives, including New Moon Cooperative Cafe, Orca Books Cooperative, Dumpster Values Collective, and Blue Heron Bakery Community Cooperative, along with many more!