THUNDER BAY – A local business owner isn't just shattering the glass ceiling, she's also taking down the walls.
Romy Marlo, founder of Crush Coffee Co., told Dougall Media the company is currently renovating a commercial space in the James Murphy Coal Building on Simpson Street owned by Urban Abby.
“We have teamed up with Urban Abbey, who are right now in the middle of building transitional housing. And, it's called the Simpson Street transitional housing project. They have a commercial space that they have basically offered to us to open a coffee roastery and cafe. So, we're going to be building that space,” Marlo said.
“We're in the middle of building it right now, and something that's really interesting to note about our project is that so far it has been 100 per cent a woman build, meaning that only women have been in there doing the construction and the destruction of the space.”
Back in December, the Thunder Bay and District Social Services Administration Board received $8.3 million in capital investments for transitional housing in Thunder Bay through the province's Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP)
Of that funding, $3.51 million was given to Urban Abbey to create 38 transitional housing units at four locations city-wide. Just over $2 million was put toward 24 transitional housing units at 116 Simpson St.
“There's this really beautiful synergy between Urban Abbey and the big monstrous project that they've taken on to pull people off the streets and to provide housing for people in transition, and Crush Coffee, as we want to support the women that they support through our coffee company,” Marlo said.
Crush Coffee Co. launched in March of 2024 on International Women's Day, and its goal is to “employ women from seed to sale,” she said.
“Most people don't really understand what that means, and it's a big scope. It means that we only purchase our coffee beans and source them from women-owned collectives around the world. Coffee collectives are basically the farms where the coffee beans are grown, and they are 80 to 85 per cent male-owned. Women are the labourers on these coffee farms, on these plantations,” Marlo said.
“They get paid about 40 per cent less than their male counterparts. So you can imagine that they're already getting paid very little. Now they're getting paid 40 per cent less than nothing. So, what we're doing is flipping the script of women in coffee.”
She said Crush Coffee Co.’s policy is to purchase its coffee from only women-owned collectives. Once they are imported from Colombia to Thunder Bay, the coffee is then roasted and packaged by women.
“In other words, no man’s hands touch the beans at any point in the process. And, the important part about that is that we really want to stand in integrity with our message that, from seed to sale, Crush Coffee only employs and empowers women,” Marlo said.
She said that once the roastery and café are officially open in December, they would like to hire some of the women living in the transitional housing units above Crush Coffee, but because “it's a big operation,” they will be hiring outside of the space.
Marlo said she has received a massive amount of community support since starting this project.
“There's a lot of outreach involved. There's a lot of community involvement. We have volunteers who are women of all ages. We have some retirees who are in their 70s, 80s coming in, and they've been helping. It's really been a community of women coming in and supporting this project, and we've had such amazing support from our local community, mind-blowing,” Marlo said.
“I just want to say thank you to all the people who have started following our social media and who have asked if they can volunteer or donate, or support in any way. It's been quite beautiful, actually, to see that this is coming alive.”
