the ambassador WINTER 2008-0916 WINTER 2008-09 the ambassador 17

featuresECO PROFILE:JILL FINK

featuresECO PROFILE:

JILL FINK

The two years that I spent at ASIJ, my junior and senior years, were perhaps the two years that most

singularly shaped the person I am today. They are no doubt formative years for any young person, but these two years took (read: rescued) me from a safe suburban NJ existence (white, urban sprawl, and boring – although I didn’t know it at the time) and opened my world up in ways that were unimaginable. My parents are both from large families of meager means; neither of them had the opportunity to go to college. My father was an avid reader and had always talked about the places he would want to travel. And yet, until we moved to Japan in the summer of ’91, we had never traveled outside of the United States. My father saw our move to Japan as an opportunity to show us the world and provide us with the opportunities he and my mom never had.

It’s now been fifteen years since I left Tokyo. Since that time, I’ve been to college and graduate school, worked in various capacities from non-profit work to being a college professor, and like most international students and ASIJ alums, jumped at every chance to travel the world. I’m now happily married and settled in Philadelphia where I own Mugshots Coffeehouse & Café with my friend and business partner, Angela Vendetti.

Mugshots is a triple bottom line business and is committed to making a positive contribution to our community by being mindful of the environment and our neighbors, both local and global, in all our actions. We use only fair-trade, organic coffee, and support organic agriculture and local farmers whenever possible. By doing so, we not only support our local economy, but also reduce fuel use associated with shipping. Mugshots is a founding

Jill Fink ’93 on her sustainable coffee

business in Philadelphia.

Green BeansB-Corporation member “setting the new corporate standard for social and environmental performance.” We have two locations in Philadelphia.

How did you get started in this business?The idea of opening a coffeehouse/café in my neighborhood existed for a few years before it ever became a reality. I had bought a house in the Art Museum Area of Philadelphia in 1999 and loved the neighborhood and community. We had great restaurants and parks and pubs, but were lacking a coffeehouse and true gathering place for the community. My neighbors and I would lament this fact, but it wasn’t until 2002 that I began to seriously consider making the step to make it happen on my own. When a friend was laid off from her job and decided she wanted to do something different with her life, we began working together on a business plan for what would become Mugshots Coffeehouse & Cafe. The name Mugshots comes from our location across the street from historic Eastern State Penitentiary. It was the first penitentiary in the country, based on the belief that prisoners could be reformed through penitence. It is now a historic site and museum. Over the course of the next two years, we would write our business plan, find an ideal location, and after nine months of construction, open Mugshots in late June of 2004. In July of 2006 we opened a second location in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia.

We are currently expanding our first location to nearly double our current size. In doing so, we are using all sustainable materials (floors, walls, lighting, etc), including products reclaimed from other sources. Both the architects we’ve used and the contractors doing the work are at the forefront of green design and building, allowing for great synergy between all of us.

What influenced you to choose this field?Community has always been incredibly important to me. The genesis of the idea for a coffeehouse came from recognizing a need in the neighborhood for a community gathering place – some place where friends and neighbors could gather to talk, to share, to meet for the first time. It was also important that I be able to continue to do social justice work in some capacity. The decision to be a triple bottom line business went hand-in-hand with the decision to open a coffeehouse. From the very beginning there was never any question that we would serve only fair-trade and organic coffees and teas, that we

would source as much food as possible from the local farms surrounding Philadelphia, and that we would be stewards of the environment.

There were a number of people who told us that we could never do what we set out to do and make a profit. There were those who feared that we would lose what little we had. There were those who wouldn’t give us loans because we lacked experience and because there were no other existing models that were successfully doing what we set out to do. And yet, we persevered and got the loans we needed, all the while remaining committed to our original goals and committing ourselves to running our business ethically and sustainably. We determined that if we couldn’t be a profitable business while sticking to our values, than we would close our doors before we compromised on those values. (Incidentally, we were profitable almost immediately after opening our doors.)

What is the biggest challenge for you in working in this area?Many of the challenges I face are likely no different than the challenges faced by anyone else who owns their own business. Namely, you never really get a day off, are always “on-call,” and will be hard pressed to find employees who care about your business the same way you do.

In terms of challenges specific to owning a coffeehouse, staffing has always been a bit of a challenge. Whether it’s adjusting staffing levels to deal with seasonal fluctuations, working primarily with a college work force whose schedules change every 18 weeks, or dealing with the reality that few of our employees are looking to turn their position with us into a career, building and maintaining a competent and customer service oriented staff is a challenge.

In terms of challenges specific to being a coffeehouse committed to certain ideals there are certainly added financial costs. For example, we use 100% wind energy (which costs more than traditional energy sources); we recycle, a simple thing to do, but this also represents a significant cost to us as a business; we source all of our meats from local farms – the cost to purchase humanely raised meats from a small family farm is significantly more than it would be to purchase a lesser quality meat sourced from a factory farm. Further, purchasing from local family farms means dealing with a larger variety of vendors than we would if we were to purchase from one or two largescale distributors. It’s perhaps a little more complicated to deal with multiple vendors, and at times can be challenging,

the ambassador WINTER 2008-0918 WINTER 2008-09 the ambassador 19

featuresECO PROFILE:JILL FINK

featuresECO PROFILE:

JILL FINK

but for us, it’s just the way it is (we have no other basis for comparison).

How has the café business changed since you began working?There are certainly more cafes that have opened in the last few years that share a similar mission and philosophy to that of Mugshots. I find that our customers are much more educated about issues such as fair-trade and local foods than when we first opened. Many of the misconceptions about these principles have disappeared. Customers know that by purchasing fair-trade products that they are actually getting a superior product and know that the premium they pay for that product is going directly back into the community that produced it.

Did anyone, or any course, at ASIJ have an influence on you in regard to the work you do now?In general, I believe that my time at ASIJ prepared me to be a better global citizen, to see the world beyond my own front door and to think more clearly about the impact of my decisions on those both in my immediate community and those in small communities far from my own. I am compassionate and

inquisitive, and my sense of global responsibility does not come from working for a large multi-national company, but by making intelligent and informed decisions about the purchasing power I have as a small, independent business owner. (Coffee is the second most actively traded commodity in the world – oil is first.) The two teachers who had perhaps the greatest influence on me, and most shaped the future courses I would take in college, were Paul Zaiser ’75 and Craig Olstad. I spent a great deal of time both inside and outside of the classroom with each of these teachers, and it was during those times that I truly developed a passion for learning, reading, and social justice. It was also these teachers that made me not only a better student, but a better citizen, someone who questioned rather than blindly accepted what I saw around me.

What inspires you?I recently returned from spending two weeks in Peru. During the time I was there, I lived and worked with one of the families who are members of the remote farming community of San Fernando. San Fernando is located at an altitude of 1800m (6000 ft) about 14 hours north of Cusco, and is the community, democratically organized as a cooperative,

which grows the coffee we serve at Mugshots. There are many things that inspire me, but I realized while I was in Peru, that it is these families, as well as the local family farmers around Philadelphia, that are my inspiration day after day. When I asked what I could do to help improve the lives of the producers in San Fernando, I was told simply, “sell more coffee.” Therein lies my inspiration. Because by selling more coffee, I make it possible for the community of San Fernando to improve its farming techniques, or hire a teacher or build a church, or have a health clinic, or install plumbing, or improve the conditions of their daily lives in the ways I take for granted every day.

How green are you at home?I’m just as green at home as I am at work. Unlike many businesses these days, from its inception, Mugshots committed itself to the triple bottom line. We have not jumped on the “green” bandwagon in response to feedback from focus groups, or had to reinvent ourselves based on the latest consumer trends. The mission and philosophy of Mugshots extended from

my own personal values. At home, we do simple things like recycle, conserve water, keep windows insulated, use energy efficient light bulbs, and biodegradable cleaning products. We have gradually replaced old appliances with newer, energy efficient models as needed. We purchase wind energy and are working to get solar panels installed (a challenge given the wooded area where we live). We’ve chosen to live in a community where we can walk or ride bikes to accomplish much of our shopping needs (food, clothing, etc.), and when we have to drive we have a Prius. We do much of our own gardening and are installing a rain barrel to recycle rainwater. We compost all of our waste. Our diet is primarily composed of vegetables, legumes and grains; when we eat meat it has been raised humanely and sustainably.

What advice would you give current students at ASIJ?Take advantage of every opportunity presented to you, to learn more and do more. Give of yourself and what comes back to you will be much more valuable than any “thing” you would give. If you want peace, work for justice.

More at www.mugshotscoffeehouse.com