East Van Roasters - Raising the Bar in Vancouver
Like other social entrepreneurs, Shelley Bolton of East Van Roasters has built a business on quality, sustainability, and community. These values carry through their delicious artisan coffee and chocolate that they produce in-house, as well as their employment and training of Downtown East Side women residents of the Vancouver Rainier Hotel. As part of our Dignities Series, institute B is excited to share a rare interview with one of Vancouver’s unsung heroes and how we learned about their Bean-to-Bar approach is changing lives.
institute B: Tell us about a favorite chocolate-related memory.
Shelley Bolton: Watching Charlie & the Chocolate Factory for the first time as a child, it meant a lot to me that the dream of a golden ticket chocolate bar could take Charlie and his family out of a very sad and desperate situation and that his kind heartedness would eventually lead him there.
When did you realize that you wanted to make chocolate?
About five years ago when I was Project Developer at Esemkwu Aboriginal Healing & Wellness Society I was fortunate enough to be studying traditional plants and medicines with native elders in Hawaii, and cacao kept coming up. I began working with raw cacao and seeing it as a nutritional source as well as a sweet dessert.
Tell us about your journey. How did the idea of “Bean to Bar” evolve?
I was asked by the PHS Community Services Society if I could develop some social enterprises in the community that would create employment for the residents of their programs – the first shop we opened was The Window Community Art Shop at 9 West Hastings, which currently offers 250 local artists’ works for sale, as well as studio classes and employment opportunities. The second major project was East Van Roasters. We wanted to create employment opportunities for the women living upstairs in the Rainier Hotel, which at the time was a treatment-based Single Room Occupancy (SRO). Chocolate was one of the ideas that came up, and bean-to-bar was the most labor intensive and interesting to us. Once we began researching the details we were inspired and intrigued — it seemed like the perfect fit.
Why do you think it’s important for customers and the community to witness the “Bean to Bar” process?
We all enjoy seeing something being created before our eyes. It’s part of our curious nature, and everyone loves chocolate, so we thought it would be great for everyone to be able to witness the creation of chocolate from raw cacao to finished bar.
What is your team’s favorite part about the chocolate-making process at East Van Roasters?
Every step is vital to the creation of chocolate and while some jobs take more practice and technical mastery, we need everyone to make chocolate and that adds to the beauty and deliciousness of our product.
How does East Van Roasters work and position itself as a community enterprise in its very own neighborhood?
Being a program that offers women in transition a step into the working world, EVR supports and encourages healthy attitudes and a positive outlook without judgment or punishment for where individuals currently are in their lives. Few work environments out there are likely the same and we aspire to be the first of many.
What was the most challenging point in your life?
That’s a difficult question to answer. There have been many challenges in my life and they only seem to get greater and more difficult, but thankfully my ability to creatively and gracefully face them continues to develop as well.
Has this experience ever contributed to your work at East Van Roasters?
Oh definitely – there is a new challenge every day, which comes with the territory of doing something really difficult, really well.
Who inspires you at East Van Roasters and why?
Every single member of our team has a story that would rivet you to your seat. I am inspired by the strength and perseverance each of these women display. When one experiences tragedy and still smiles at you with such love and hopefulness, it’s deeply inspiring.
What do you think your team is learning from you as a leader and a business?
As well as creating the best chocolate in the world, my main drive is creating a beautiful and inviting work environment, a place where women can come to do meaningful work and feel respected, cared for and empowered. It’s an idea that’s not this ‘pie-in-the-sky’ thing. We all would like to work in such an environment – so let’s just make it happen.
How do you motivate your team to push past boundaries and pursue opportunities that they might have initially thought impossible or too big?
For some individuals, coming in regularly and on time for a four-hour shift is the breaking point, and for others, taking on a huge four thousand dollar order is the tipper – but as a very practical thinker I know there is almost always a solution that can keep everyone happy. Yet we can’t do everything – and that’s ok!
Sourcing from social enterprises makes us all feel good. But is there a compelling business case that can be made for doing this?
Investing in our community by purchasing locally creates a strong social fabric. I would much rather know the name of the person who baked my bread and the mother and daughter team who cared for the bees and delivered their honey to me, the farmer who grew our cacao trees and the man who went to the coffee farm and ate dinner with the farmers and learned about the impact that our purchasing coffee has on their family.
We have inspired people in our community doing great work; we don’t need to buy things that are a huge expense to our environment or our health. Maybe if we care a little bit more about the independent shops that are doing their part to bring us the best they can then we would all be a bit happier?
As a regular Starbucks customer I was totally blown away by the atmosphere and class at East Van Roasters. Totally loved it!
Glad you liked it. We think they are really special!