Dear Partner,

The word of the week has been “pivot” for The Coffee Oasis team. For months we have been planning holiday events for the youth and seasonal specials for our café customers. All our best made plans needed to “pivot” this last week because of the new statewide guidelines Governor Inslee shared on Sunday, November 15th.

I personally want to apologize for any confusion or concern caused by not communicating sooner with the changes we have made following the statewide guidelines. We also did not clarify the different experiences offered to youth in Kitsap County and Pierce County and the coffee shops.

Here are the changes made in response to the recent guidelines:

Kitsap Youth Programs

  • Although shelters and homeless services have not been asked to modify their capacity, we have decided to limit our drop-in center capacity to 50% to reduce potential exposure of youth. We will be scheduling times for our youth to access vital resources (shower, laundry, etc.), so that we are able to make sure everybody is safely served. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have required the wearing of masks, taking temperature of all youth entering our centers/shelters, and general health screening questions. We are continuing with these safety measures.
  • We are still hosting Family Christmas Project, although it will look different this year. It is very important to us that we are able to give gifts to our kids at Christmas. This is one of those very special “normal” experiences that remind our kids they are remembered and loved. Instead of one larger party, we will be hosting multiple smaller gatherings. These smaller gatherings include the drop-in center safety measures listed above. In addition, youth will have the option to take Christmas dinner and presents to-go, or have their gifts dropped-off by wonderful Coffee O staff and volunteers.

Pierce Youth Programs

  • Family Christmas Project has a limited capacity for The Coffee Oasis youth in Pierce County this year. I am sorry this was not communicated better in our last email regarding Family Christmas Project. We are in the midst of moving to a larger shelter location in the heart of Tacoma and are not able to serve more youth than are currently in the shelter and outreach programs. This means we will not be having a meal and festivities for a larger community of youth in Pierce County this year. If you would like to support our youth in the shelter (6 youth) or those connected with our street/school outreach (65 youth), then we invite you to donate to this expression of Pierce County Family Christmas Project. We look forward to soon being in a location that can shelter 12 youth every night and space for a café and drop-in center!

Coffee Shops

  • Statewide guidelines have been the clearest for our coffee shops. For the next month, customers are not able to sit in any of our café locations, but we still need the support of our thirsty coffee drinkers to buy drinks or beans. We are still here to meet your coffee needs!  Stop by or call ahead. We have been planning some AMAZING seasonal surprises. Eggnog is here and we are rolling out a new menu item… biscuits and gravy!!! Don’t forget to check out our new merch when you head out for Christmas shopping. We have branded long-sleeve flannel shirts and beanies hitting the shelves soon.

In a year that has held so many challenges, I pray that we will be remembered for loving and supporting one another well.

We are so thankful for the way you care for The Coffee Oasis kids and community!

Daniel Frederick
Executive Director of The Coffee Oasis