BIGGBY® COFFEE Co-CEO Records International Travels as He Searches for Organizations Bringing Good to the World
BIGGBY® COFFEE believes when you love the world, the world will love you back. BIGGBY® COFFEE does that not only by serving the world’s best coffee, creating a warm and inviting environment, and being the friendly coffee community, but by helping customers, employees, and franchise owners build lives they love.
As the saying goes, when you shoot for the moon you’ll land among stars, and BIGGBY® COFFEE wants to help everyone land among the stars, if not on the moon itself. As a way of doing this, BIGGBY® COFFEE strives to be a conscious company – putting people and the planet on an equal level as profit. Through community involvement, spectacular employee training, and the idea that when you walk into BIGGBY® COFFEE you should feel at home, BIGGBY® COFFEE has created a one-of-a-kind experience where the coffee is as delicious as the atmosphere is welcoming.
It doesn’t stop with great employees and good coffee, though, BIGGBY® COFFEE aims to partner with organizations that are also working to bring good to the world. One such example is their new partnership with Living Hope International, a non-profit organization that runs a coffee farm as a means of supporting and sustaining an orphanage in Zambia for children who otherwise would have very little hope. Living Hope International gives children 12 years of education and helps them get into college so they can give back to their Zambian communities. Aside from education and a warm bed, these children have love, laughter, and a life full of adventure. BIGGBY® COFFEE announced this partnership, as well as their goal to create many more throughout the years, on Giving Tuesday (December 3).
In order to ensure the organizations they partner with are as out-of-this-world as them seem, BIGGBY® COFFEE co-CEO, Bob Fish, and his wife, Michelle, travel the world visiting these organizations to see how BIGGBY® COFFEE can help them achieve a mutual goal of brewing change throughout the world. At the same time, Fish and his wife are building a life they love as they aim to reach their personal goal of visiting 150 countries before they die.
Bob and Michelle document their adventures through their blog, One Bigg Island in Space. They give it all to readers – the good, the bad, and even the ugly. While they attempt to do good through their travels and foster relationships with thoughtful organizations, it’s not always easy. In their blog, the couple explore some of the difficulties they face before, during, and after travel, as well as the unexpected twists and turns that come with it. As they travel the world, bridging the gap between coffee farms and BIGGBY® COFFEE, as well as blur the boundaries of nationality, culture, language, religion, and politics, Bob and Michelle have welcomed the world to travel with them through their blog.
“There are over two hundred labor hours invested in producing and processing a cup of coffee long before it gets to our lips. If you’re like me, you drink coffee every day but have little idea as to where it comes from, what the people who produce it are like, how they live, whether they are being treated fairly, and whether they treat our planet and the people around them in a sustainable manner for all,” Fish notes in the About section of his blog. “I think these things are important, and it’s the kind of information that can bring us all a little closer and make some of the boundaries that separate us melt away…. Michelle and I are on a journey to discover and unite us with the lands and the people that make this unbelievably great and natural product that we all love. We will examine and verify that what we are consuming is being produced in a humane, sustainable, and quality matter. Together, we will explore what it means to be on our ‘One BIGG Island in Space’… oneness without boundaries.”
This exclusive glance into the Fish family’s travels is an extraordinary opportunity for anyone interested in coffee, traveling overseas, conscious capitalism, or those that want to follow BIGGBY® COFFEE on their journey to change the world one cup of coffee at a time. To read about Bob and Michelle’s travels, visit www.onebiggislandinspace.com.
About BIGGBY® COFFEE
BIGGBY® COFFEE, East Lansing, Michigan-based, was started with a single store on March 15, 1995. One year later, and on the cusp of opening a second location, Bob Fish and Michael McFall, on a handshake and $4,000, decided to franchise the concept. BIGGBY® COFFEE’s cultural values of Make Friends, Have Fun, B Yourself, and Share Great Coffee help coffee-lovers and the coffee-curious alike benefit from a less pretentious and fun approach to the standard gourmet cafe paradigm. Besides connoisseur-worthy drinks with pronounceable names like Teddy Bear® and Caramel Marvel®, BIGGBY® baristas provide a unique experience focused on brightening their customers’ day and supporting them in building a life they love. The “Big ‘B’” on the orange background caught on, and today BIGGBY® COFFEE has more than 230 cafes across many states including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Florida.