Pictured left to right: Inside Cultivate Coffee; Cultivate Coffee Owners Bethany Priebe and Chris Priebe

Located in an unassuming red brick strip mall in Sunnyslope is Cultivate Coffee. Metal chairs with small tables line the front of the shop, and the door sits open at a 45-degree angle — just enough to hear the chattering buzz inside while still managing to keep the Arizona heat out. Smells of freshly ground Brazilian coffee and sweet treats pour out of the shop. 

Inside, customers are met with an intriguing, mismatched collection of furniture that adds to this shop’s humble appeal. Half of the space is adorned with wooden benches across from blue leather chairs coupled with metal studded tables. The other is filled with fabric couches and a low table covered in classic board games. Teal and terracotta walls are lined with an eclectic selection of local artwork that rotates every two months.

From the outside, Cultivate may look like a typical coffee shop, but to its employees and owners, it is so much more: A family. Most of the employees are homeless, refugee youth or young adults aging out of the foster care system. 

“The criteria [our employees have to meet] is broad,” Bethany Priebe, director and co-founder of Cultivate, says, taking a sip of warm coffee out of her ceramic mug. “[Our employees] are facing obstacles currently in their lives that hinder them from crossing into adulthood successfully. Oftentimes, they are refugees, kids aging out of foster care, but most of the time they are kids within the neighborhood who have lost a parent or are bouncing around from house to house.”

Serving neighbors near & far 

Arizona natives Bethany and Chris Priebe met in high school. The couple spent their days working together at a youth-run music venue. A warm smile comes across Bethany’s face as she describes organizing bands to play at the venue, working the snack bar, running a game room and building connections not only with the youth she worked alongside but with visitors. The Priebes walked away from this experience with an amazing sense of community, newly learned leadership skills and so much more. 

When they got married, the Priebes had a vision to create a similar space in a community that did not have access to opportunities like they did. At this point in their lives, the two had been working for nonprofits. They had no offices and commonly found themselves meeting and spending time in coffee shops. Realizing their lives revolved around coffee, they started creating a vision for Cultivate. 

“We wanted to bring a gathering space into the community,” says Bethany. “We wanted it to be tangible, where youth could get actual life mentoring and job experience. We love how people came together over coffee and how [coffee shops] serve as a place of connection.”

The couple sat on the idea for several years before asking themselves what they could do to get the ball rolling. It was on a trip to Yellowstone that they began to brainstorm different names, logos and business plans for their potential shop. They learned to look at what was right in front of them and focus on what they could do in the present rather than obsess about the future. 

Receiving a donation of $3,000 was just the kickstart the Priebes needed for Cultivate. Chris figured out how to build his own coffee roaster for $1,000 to avoid spending five figures on a commercial one. He engineered a way to use a barbeque with a rotating drum to roast the coffee. They used the remaining donated funds to buy ethically sourced coffee beans. 

“We want to serve our neighbors both near and far,” says Chris. “But, you can’t just Google ‘Who sells ethical coffee?’ Luckily, the coffee community in Phoenix is open, and I was able to talk to shop owners and roasters about where they source their coffee from. We wanted to make sure the farms we were buying from were doing something to take care of their local community too, while still providing high-quality beans.”   

Daterra Coffee is a farm in Brazil that does just that. This specific farm that Cultivate partners with employs single women who have faced traumatic or difficult experiences throughout their lives. The farm provides them with opportunities to earn fair and equitable pay.