Coffee That Fights Homelessness

This is the second most listened to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast. 

A tent city on the news can be easy to scroll past. For Rob Bergfalk, it became the moment he could not ignore, and it grew into Compassion Church and Compassion Coffee in Anoka, Minnesota. We talk with Rob about what it really looks like to feel “called” to something, and how purpose becomes tangible when you build a place where people who are often overlooked are seen, known, and supported.

Rob walks us through the long, careful path from 2018 to launching the church in 2021, including why they chose suburban Anoka, how proximity to shelters shaped the mission, and how a coffee shop can be more than a business. We dig into the nuts and bolts of the model: starting with a coffee cart, learning through community events, then opening a permanent coffeehouse that serves high-quality local coffee while creating a stable environment for connection.

The most powerful part is the work behind the counter. Compassion Coffee hires people affected by homelessness and focuses on both job training and life skills: barista skills, customer service, safety and sanitation, budgeting, meal planning, and navigating conflict. We also explore why partnerships with organizations like Hope for Youth, Stepping Stone, and Family Promise matter, and why humility and listening often do more than “playing hero.”

If you care about homelessness solutions, community partnerships, social enterprise, faith-based outreach, or workforce development, you’ll leave with a clearer picture of what help can look like on an ordinary street. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find stories that bring us a little closer together.

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“Intro music: ‘Human First’ by Mike Baker – YouTube Music: https://youtu.be/wRXqkYVarGA | Podcast: Still Here, Still Trying | Website: www.mikebakerhq.com”

Transcript

Welcome And Share The Show

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to a very special episode of the Kind That's Matters Podcast. Our top three most listened to episodes. This is the Kind That's Matters Podcast. That's great for stories that inspire talent. Let's bring us a little closer together. If you've been looking for a reminder of the good and people, you're in the right place. Because kindness matters. Let's go to you. Hey, welcome everybody to the show. Thank you so much for taking 30-ish minutes of your time and spending it with us, with me and my guests today. As I always do, I will remind you that if there's something that you hear in this podcast that inspires you, that moves you, that motivates you, please make sure to share this podcast with your friends and family, your work colleagues. I've started saying strangers on the street. That may or may not be comfortable for you, but you know, if if if the spirit moves you, right? Feel free to share it. I I would greatly appreciate it. And and hopefully your friends and family that you share it with will appreciate it as well.

What It Means To Feel Called

SPEAKER_00 1:24

So have you ever been have you ever felt called to do something? Um and and I always kind of scoffed at this when I was younger, this notion of saying, you know, I really feel like this is something I need to be doing. Um but as I get older I I kind of feel that it's actually a thing. And maybe this maybe this podcast, maybe that's my thing. Well, I'll tell you what, my guest today is um Rog Bur Rob Bergfall. I really have to enunciate there. I apologize, Rob. Um, who is the um founder of Compassion Church and Compassion Coffee in Anoka, Minnesota. And um, I find his story amazing and uplifting, and I think you will too. And you were felt to called to something, right, Rob?

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Uh yeah, that's right. Um, compassion, church and compassion coffee is a result of of me sensing a call. Uh, for me, obviously as a pastor, uh, this call is from God. And um, but I recognize, you know, people even that that don't believe in God, right? Like there's uh I think people, I think we can all relate to that there's there's a greater purpose in life that we can that we can find. And so for me, my relationship with God, um that yeah, that's resulted in a very specific calling and a vision that He has that He has given me that that which is the result of is Compassion Church and Compassion Coffee.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

That yeah, for sure. Um I you know what I never stop to think that maybe an agnostic or an atheist might be feel called to do something. That's okay. Interesting. I'm gonna have to think about that a little bit more. But let's talk about you because you're why we're here. Um

Tent Cities That Sparked A Vision

SPEAKER_00 3:42

so this started this started for you kind of in 2018. Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Yeah, I mean the so my story um there's a lot of history from before that that has kind of resulted, but specifically for about compassion. Uh yeah, in 2018, um there were the homeless camps happening off Hiawatha Avenue. Um and news, you know, the different news outlets were uh reporting on this all throughout that summer and fall. And you know, there were hundreds of tents, uh, hundreds of people living what they were calling tent cities. And so they had propane tanks, like kitchen, like you know, they it it looked like a city of uh uh just with a bunch of tents, and um yeah, and that broke my heart. And um, I was reading a book at the same time and uh about uh what it looks like to be the church, and I sensed this call from God that um that we were supposed to start a church to care for the homeless population. Um and I didn't really know exactly what that meant, but that was that was kind of the start of like, okay, um, I wonder uh I wonder what that looks like, I wonder if we should do this, if if we can do this. Um, and that started a journey of of just kind of listening and trying to be obedient to what that looked like. Um so, but yeah, that started back in 2018, and um and we didn't start the church until the summer of 2021. And so there was really a three-year process of really discerning um should we do this and is this what we're supposed to do?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, and well, and that's not something you rush into, right? Um, absolutely. Uh and I I we've talked about the homeless before. I've talked with Steve Griffiths, you know, Steve, I'm sure. Um, and um Darlene Sparks Washington, Dr. Darlene Sparks Washington, uh, had her on recently. Um, and and uh a theme that kind of runs through that is how the homeless can be right out in the open but invisible. But you saw them, yeah, and you felt dare I say compassion.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I and I saw them through um I I think it's important to note too, like I didn't I didn't I didn't see anybody because I was driving down. Like we you know we live in Champlain. Um and so we thought because there was awareness of people were talking about it, right? People like the news stations were talking about it, and so yeah, there's this awareness, and that's part of what we're hoping to do with compassion, is helping like the a big piece is helping care for people in need is is helping people be aware that there are actually people in need. Um yeah, so yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

And they were talking about it again this winter, right? Because there have been how many homeless encampments and I don't know for whatever reason this seems to happen most in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Um but there were fires in these camps because of the propane tanks that they were using, and you brought that up when just a second ago. Um so I mean they were back in the news, and I yeah, I don't so that had nothing to do with anything, I think. But just going to your point about compassion, um, so can you walk us through kind of what the the lead up from 2018 to 2021 looked like?

Building A Church Through Coffee

SPEAKER_00 7:26

How did you prepare for this mission?

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah, so I was a youth pastor at the time. Um, and before that, I think it's important to note too, before um I I I got into ministry in in 2016, but before that I was in the restaurant industry for for 12 years. So I was in the restaurant industry right out of high school. And um, and so in 2018, when we're kind of just you know thinking like, okay, what does it look like to actually start a church and how do you practically care for the homeless population as a church? Um, my wife and I um about a year I think we we talked, and it was the following August in 2019, where we had kind of came up with this idea of well, what what if we open like the cop a coffee shop and that is a place where the church can meet, you can save money on on renting a building. Um, as a pastor, I could part of my salary could come from the coffee shop. So you can actually reach the poor, and the church can be made up of the poor and still be financially stable. And we really liked that idea, not only from a missional aspect as a church, but you could also hire people that are part of the homeless population and practically make a difference that way, and all while spreading awareness of um homelessness. And so we we we really loved that idea and got excited about that, and um, so that was 2019, and so we then were part of the Christian and missionary alliance denomination, and so there's different people you talk to about, you know, hey, we're thinking about starting a church, like the church that we are part of kind of started that conversation for us, and um, so there was a big assessment that her and I went through for three and a half days, where it really kind of um it's kind of like a really intense marriage retreat that that the denomination helps you discern should you be planting a church, is this wise? Like, well, you know, are you fit to do that? And and so we got the light to go to continue to move forward. And so um we actually thought we would end up downtown, and um as we were looking, so we live in Champlain, and as we were looking at different places, someone, uh Dan Adler at Heart of the City Music Factory in Anoka had reached out and uh and was curious, reached out to see if there were any church planters in the area. And um we we looked up uh Heart of the City Music Factory. It was it's right next to Hope for Youth in the same building, which is an organization that cares for youth experiencing homelessness. We didn't know Stepping Stone Emergency Housing even exists, which is you know a homeless shelter in Anoka that houses 66 people at a given time. And so like there's just like we were just kind of blown away and just felt this confirmation over and over and over again that we were supposed to be in Anoka. Um and really, especially with suburban homelessness, as you mentioned, you don't see you don't necessarily see people experiencing homelessness. You do, but not not to the extent that it actually exists. And so um, so part of it for us was we can help, but we can also help spread awareness. So um, yeah, so the church started in in the summer of 2021. Uh we purposely met close to the shelter so that we can build relationships with the residents, we provide transportation uh for the residents to the to the church, but uh all the while we were trying to figure out what does it look like to actually open a coffee house. Turns out you need money to do that. And uh yeah, no way. Um so very quickly, we we decided to just start on the small side, start a coffee cart. You know, we could start a coffee cart with ten to fifteen thousand dollars and start at least employing one person and um kind of start building a customer database and just figure out like what we are doing. And um, and then last year at the beginning of 2024, we found a location for the coffee house and signed a lease in May. We opened at the end of October, so that it's called Compassion Coffee. And so now, as of today, um a coffee house is open Monday through Saturday. We're able to employ people affected by homelessness. Sunday mornings the church meets uh there, and and we're living out the vision, the dream that God had given us um yeah, uh six six years ago, which is six and a half years ago, which is kind of crazy and it feels surreal.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah,

From Coffee Cart To Coffeehouse

SPEAKER_00 11:49

I'll bet. I'll bet. Yeah, um, yeah, that's that's so cool. So when you had the coffee cart, would you go to uh I suppose you went to events, kind of like a food truck? Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Is that yeah? Our first event was um uh a Halloween event uh with the Noka Lions. They invited us, they have a big white tent at the Halloween festivities, and uh they invited us to set up, and so that was our our very first event. It was October of 2022. Um after that we started doing different ones. You know, there's a holiday market that the Noka hosts as well. Um we participated in the farmers market, so we would set up um a little a little stand on Wednesday afternoons. Um yeah, we would we started getting booked at uh different like weddings and different kinds of events where people will hire us, schools, the school system. So people would schools would actually hire us um for like a teacher appreciation event. Um, and so that was that was really cool. So yeah, though it was kind of like word of mouth, and we're just you know, we were open to pretty much every opportunity, and we some events you made money, some events you chalk it up as a marketing opportunity, right? For a learning experience, and you you know, you just kind of go from there.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Creating awareness, creating word of mouth. Yeah, that's um and for folks who might be listening that don't know Anoka, Minnesota, the town has a lot of events. Um and they are the Halloween capital of the world. So I kind of giggled to myself when you said their first event was a Halloween. So I mean they do Halloween like nobody else I've ever seen ever. Yeah. But um, so now you're you've got your spot in downtown. I'm guessing they always have one or two big sidewalk type. I mean yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah, there's um there's a couple, yeah. They do they do quite a few large events downtown. We're actually we're we're in Anoka, but and we're off Main Street, but we're we're actually like just outside the downtown area. So we're not part of, you know, there's like a it they call it Discover Anoka, where it's like all these shops and restaurants and stuff that are like part of the downtown group. We're on the west end of Main Street, and so down like if you're going if you're from downtown Anoka, if you go down Main Street, um there's like a Dairy Queen um on the other side, there's a uh uh Maurer Chevrolet. Um we're we're down at the old old like Anoka shopping center um next to Crown Bakery. Um okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:35

I had you on the other end. I had you on the east end. I don't know why when I was thinking about it, and I was I mean no.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Yeah but no, it's look open, it just opened.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

So yeah, so we're uh So you're you're on the west side of the river?

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Yeah, yeah. Um we took over the old uh it was a Jelly Bean and Julia barbecue restaurant, um, and they they moved to Coon Rapids, and so we took their old location.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Okay. So you do you have a kitchen there then?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Yeah, there is a kitchen. Um we currently only like the only time we use the actual kitchen with the hoods is what we bake cookies. Um the and uh so we have somebody that it's his family recipe, it's called Mr. Chipper's cookies. So he makes the cookie dough and then we bake the cookies. Um and they're delicious cookies. Um but we don't like we're right next to Crown Bakery, you know. They we have a we have a partnership with them where they provide all our baked goods. Um and they also sell sandwiches, and so we also want to be honoring to them and not try to be competition to them. And so I think as time goes on, we'll kind of figure out like what food looks like uh for us. But um, but yeah, right now it's it's mostly coffee and pastries that we serve, and we really we really do strive to have high quality um high quality coffee. The coffee that we uh serve is from Silverbird Roasting, and he's a local roaster in St. Anthony. He's won national championships, and I mean it's really yeah, it's really high quality coffee. And so we really do um, you know, we take pride in in serving a high-quality drink.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

So as a former Catholic kid, this is not your church basement coffee. This is the good stuff. This is not your coffee and donuts after mass coffee.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

No, yeah, it's yeah, it's uh it's good coffee.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

And I uh what one of the funny Well you have some you have an experienced employee though, right? Doing the coffee.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Yeah, Lily, she's our operations director. Um so she runs the coffee house. So she knows what she's doing. If you ever see like the really cute latte art, that's most likely her. If you see like stuff that looks more abstract, that's probably me um making it. But um yeah, so she does a she does a really good job. Um and that and that's part of like you know, when we employ people, we want to we want to be able to offer skills, uh, barista skills, life skills, but some of the fun stuff, like the artsy thing is learning how to do latte art. And that is, I mean, that really is a skill um that you need to learn. And so we're still working on that as well. But we'd love to do like a latte art class at some point too, and um do some of the fun community events. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Yeah.

Job Training And Life Skills

SPEAKER_00 17:16

So yeah, let's talk about um the skills because you do you hire people experiencing homelessness, right? Yeah, and you, I mean, that's part of your whole mission is giving them skills, work experience that they can take and put on a resume and and take forward with them into life, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We are we're currently working out like so. Right now it's pretty informal as it relates to the training and the skills that we're that we want to work on, but we're working on a four-month um kind of like a cohort style. Uh, we were actually inspired by Wild Flyer Coffee. Um, they're in Minneapolis and St. Paul. They have a couple shops and they hire uh youth experiencing homelessness, and they they actually have like a cohort that people go through and they do a phenomenal job. And so we've been inspired by how they are doing that. And so we're not like taking their thing, um, but we've we're we're kind of like figuring out what does it look like for us and what is working for other places, and um what is how do we incorporate that? And do we do a cohort or is it just kind of like an individual style? And so we're we're kind of working out the kinks there, but what um yeah, we want to offer the barista skills and life skills. So, you know, when I say like barista work skills, that's um how do you work the cash register, how do you make a drink, right? How do you brew coffee? Um, and that sort of thing. How customer service skills, how do you, even when you're having a bad day, how do you interact with someone where you can, you know, smile and not fake it, but be genuine and care for people and um and be aware of verbal, you know, the verbal interactions, but also the nonverbal gestures that would that customers make and just helping become aware of of some of those things. Um and then um, yeah, and safety and sanitation and and things like that. For life skills, you know, that is more of like, all right, what does budgeting look like? Um, how are you managing your money? Um, things like that. Um, where uh you know, even things like meal planning, um, and how do you decide what groceries to buy and how to how to plan out your meals and um how to when you have conflict with someone, what do you what do you do? Um if someone blows up at you, um how do you handle that? And so, you know, we can kind of distinguish between hard skills and soft skills of of how do we work with people and how to how do we develop that? And it's not it, and it's it's to, you know, so our vision is to empower people affected by homelessness. Our hope is that we're able to teach those things and that as people learn those things, that they're able to take them with whatever it is that they want to do in life. Not necessarily that we expect them to stay at Compassion Coffee forever, but maybe that means that they'll go and start their own business or go to college or you know, their next job that they have these skills that that they're you know better equipped. Um, but we just yeah, we want to add value to their lives. Um, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

And all of that stuff is so important that to have I I'm not sure that kids leaving high school have some of those skills that you guys teach. Uh yeah. And it's so essential.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah. I uh yeah, in my restaurant days, uh, you know, I was I I worked for a restaurant called Kidoba Mexican Grill, and I worked with a lot of different people, and I one of the things that I've that I just I I found fascinating is the amount of like conversations you can have about normal everyday life while you're cooking chicken or washing dishes or scrubbing the floor. Like you end up talking about who knows what, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:55

And so one of the things I I do not possess that skill.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Well one of the things that I really value is like you get to you get to know somebody's life story and you just talk about life, right? Like coworkers. It's just yeah, you just end up talking about life. And so we also see I I think there's a lot of value in the just the skills that we can we can provide, but having being able to show that you actually care about somebody and that you're in their corner and that you'll encourage them on a bad day, and that they know that they have somebody to go to when they've got questions or they have issues. Um, I think that alone, having that kind of relationship um outside of the skills is really is really crucial. And so we also want to provide that of just like, hey, like when life just hits you, like you know you can call us, you know that we actually we do care. We're not you're not just an employee, you're part of this compassion family. And um so we um so yeah, yeah, we we that's a big value that we have as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah, for sure. Oh wow. That's

Partnerships That Make It Work

SPEAKER_00 22:03

so cool. Yeah, because you haven't really been open long enough to go through a couple of employees and have them leave and then come back and say, you know, you guys helped so much.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah, we do. Oh, we have had um with the coffee cart, you know, we have had an employee that we've hired off and on, kind of as as they've gone through things. And so we've we've learned a little bit of that and being able to see, I and I think you know, we're able to see like some of the impact, but I think greater than that, one of the things I appreciate about Anoka is that there's a lot of organizations doing work. And so when we partner with Hope for Youth or Family Promise or Stepping Stone, um, it's kind of a collection of like, hey, there's all these different places that are caring for people, and it's cool to be able to see collectively how you can make a difference as a community. Um there is it is fun to celebrate. There's a lot of overlap there. Um we even see red of yeah, I was gonna say there's there's even you know, there's people from that will recognize both Lily and I worked at the shelter, and so there will be people that we recognize that will come in to the coffee house, and um they'll come into the coffee house and people that are experiencing homelessness and just want to sit and you know, we're able to offer just a free coffee and they can just sit in a quiet space, especially in the winter, you know, it's warm and being able to just like be um be in a space and know that they're safe. Like I think that's that's valuable. And so I think um being able to work with other organizations to be able to care for the community is great.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Yeah, yeah, and you were just kind of talking about something I wanted to bring up. Um the collaboration between different organizations is so cool. Um I know one of my guests you are working with right now, Jill Morrison from Be Memorable Marketing. Um and that just because you work with a lot of other different organizations there in Anoka to make all this magic happen, right? I mean, hope for youth.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Yeah. And yeah, it's I mean, it's a it is a it's a community effort. And um, you know, I I so for for Lily and I, we both worked at Stepping Stone uh for a while. Uh she was the intake specialist uh for uh for her time there, and then I did a uh combination of some different things. But I think um one of the things that even Stepping Stone just provided us was we've learned a lot of how to care for people experiencing homelessness and even just learning and practicing listening, like you know, we learned to listen growing up, but like being able to just be quiet and not say anything and listen to someone for 10 minutes and care for them afterwards, and like you know, simple things of using their names and just like, oh, you actually care. Like, I I think um and that's why I appreciate uh same thing with like hope for youth of when people are able to go and volunteer. The there's practical things that you get to experience where you're not only just helping somebody, but you're actually growing as a person. Uh in my experience, being around people experiencing homelessness, I actually grew, I grew a ton through that. And so I learned a lot. Um, a lot of times I think we think like, oh, I'm gonna come and be the hero. And that I just don't think that's the case. Like, I think if you enter it with humility, um, that you actually grow. And so I think all these different organizations, they offer different things, right? So our three partner organizations, um, Family Promise, our parents and family, or uh parents and kids experiencing homelessness. You got Hope for Youth, which is the youth, and then you've got Stepping Stone, which is 18 plus. And so you have all the age ranges, and they all, you know, they do very different things, and yet collectively they care for the unsheltered, our unsheltered friends. And so I think what people are able to learn, hey, we can all make a big difference when we work together. I think that's huge.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

I think I just learned something. Family pathways, is that see, because I only know them as like a discount store.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Oh, uh family promise, not family pathways. Oh, family promise, okay. Yeah, yeah. So they're they're in Coon Rapids, but they're they're actually building like an apartment style kind of uh shelter um where families can live. Um and yeah, so they're I mean they're they're doing really important work as well. Um and and and those are just you know, those are just the three that we really have ongoing conversations with, but there's many more organizations that I'm sure you've you know you've met lots of other people doing a lot of work as well, that it's just like which is good. It's it's also like kind of sad that we need so many organizations because of how many people are are you know are in need, but uh obviously we're very thankful that those are organizations exist as well.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

But yeah, and it it's a it's a scary time. And I mean, I've I've spoken with um do you know Susan Deerson? She used to run NACE and now she runs um Meals on Wheels.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

I I know of them. I don't know if I've actually met okay, but anyway.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

And we we were just talking about how you know a lot of people right now are like one medical emergency away from needing the services that you guys provide, you know, um, or needing the assistance of a food shelf or what have you. And and it's sad that we're in that position, but um it's good to know we have guys like you. Yeah, and and Lily, and and I'm sorry, your wife.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Uh uh my wife, yeah. My wife is Kelsey, yeah. And then Lily Kelsey, yeah, yeah, Kelsey, yeah. And then Lily runs the coffee house. So Kelsey does a lot of the behind the scenes. So her and I both serve as like co-executive directors. Um, she works for Magnify Financial Credit Union, which also does a lot of giving back to the community, and so it's cool how our lives have kind of uh overlapped in that way as well. But she does uh all the behind-the-scenes stuff of marketing and updating the website and you know things like that as well. Um, so yeah, there's lots of lots of different people helping in a lot of different ways.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Yeah.

How To Support And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Oh, this is so amazing. I thank you so much for taking the time to come on with me today, Rob. I really, really, really appreciate it. And I appreciate you guys and what you do. And um, I will uh we'll have links to the website and the church, of course, yeah. Um in the show notes. And anybody wants to make a donation, I highly encourage it. Fantastic organization.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Yeah, thank you, Mike. I really appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

No worries. Take care and we will talk to you soon. All right, bye.