Day 16 Giveaway: Furnace Hills Coffee

Dave and Louise Baldwin were brainstorming ideas about what their daughter, Erin, who has Down syndrome, could do in the way of employment. It's no secret that there is a high percentage of people with disabilities who are either under or unemployed.

One day, on Twitter of all places, Dave saw an announcement from Jim Kales, CEO of Aspire (who are also donating coffee for the 21 Days of Giveaway!) about a new venture employing people with disabilities in a coffee-roasting business. Aspire is located in Chicago, the Baldwins live in Westminster, MD. So Dave got the idea to start a coffee-roasting business in MD and Furnace Hills Coffee was born.

Dave is chronicling how they started their business in a series of blog post starting with The Beginning of a Movement. You can also watch this video for more info about how they got started and what the company is about.

Erin is their first employee with a disability, but the goal is to hire more employee with disabilities as the business expands (and it has already expanded as they have moved the business out of the their house!).

Furnace Hills Coffee is also giving back to organizations that service people with disabilities in places around the world.

Their coffee beans come from "specialty coffee merchants who have intimate, long-term working relationships with coffee farms and co-operatives in more than 15 countries around the world."

Furnace Hills Coffee is generously donating a bag of coffee to this giveaway - thank you!

To enter leave a comment on this post stating which coffee you think you would like and then click on the +1 Do It link on the Rafflecopter widget.

To earn more entries, and to spread the word about Furnace Hills Coffee, you can like their Facebook page and Tweet about the giveaway. You can do each of those things directly on the Rafflecopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
(Refer back to 21 Days of Giveaways throughout the month to see all of the giveaways.)