Molly Blaney hangs up the phone and turns to Bobbi Keefer.
"You're good," Blaney says, with rising excitement. "You're good!"
Keefer is hesitant, disbelieving.
"I'm holding my breath," she says.
Blaney and Keefer are sitting at New Leaf Cafe inside the downtown Spokane Public Library. Blaney is the assistant director at New Leaf Cafe. Keefer is an alumna of the cafe and now works nights at the Coeur d'Alene Casino. And after Blaney's phone call, it seems like she's about to get a new apartment, thanks to continued help from the New Leaf team.
New Leaf Cafe is an initiative through Transitions, a local nonprofit focused on ending poverty and homelessness in Spokane. Some of the baristas at New Leaf are unhoused, while others live in shelters, and a few have more permanent housing. Some are working through community service hours or in work program while preparing for release from incarceration. Regardless, New Leaf provides a patient work environment that helps participants build resumes and job skills as they reenter the workforce.
During three-month stints at the cafe, New Leaf participants practice scheduling, time management, communication and, of course, pulling espresso shots. When they graduate, they have skills that are transferable to other food or non-food industry jobs. Alumni have gone on to jobs at Nordstrom Cafe, Starbucks, Sodexo, Burlington Coat Factory, Purgatory Craft Beer and Whiskey Bar, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, MultiCare Deaconess Hospital and the Coeur d'Alene Casino, where Keefer started working this month.
"I work in the back and the kitchen at night," says Keefer, who was recently living in a shelter. "I love my job at the casino."
Oakley Gunderson, a Sandpoint native, moved to Spokane a few years ago to work at Italia Trattoria, the award-winning fine dining restaurant in Browne's Addition. Before she moved, she had 13 years of coffee experience, a love for training people, and a lingering interest in psychology and sociology. After Gunderson left Italia Trattoria, she became the cafe manager at New Leaf Cafe, which opened about a year and a half ago.
"It's a mix of everything I've done in the past and everything I want to do in the future," she says. "This is a way for me to utilize skills and also help other people."
Gunderson sets boundaries and expectations that make people feel safe instead of intimidated. It's part of New Leaf's trauma-informed approach to job training — participants know what is expected of them, but there's extra grace for extra challenges they often face like keeping track of time, finding reliable transportation and places to shower, or regulating emotions.
Plus, Gunderson's extensive barista career elevates New Leaf's coffee game.
"I want our drinks to be as good as anybody else's," she says. "You can get a drink here that's as good as any other espresso stand. I want [participants] to have the same experiences and know that if [being a barista is] the job they're pursuing, they're ready for it."
New Leaf is partnering with DOMA Coffee Roasting Co. to make an exclusive blend for wholesale and for their drip coffee. It has notes of caramel, lime and nougat. "You can definitely taste the lime in a really good way," says Gunderson and her well-trained palate.
New Leaf always offers seasonal lattes. This February features a candied pecan latte with the cafe's first house-made syrup, another step toward a gourmet coffee experience.
Transitions also has a kitchen skills training program at Spokane Falls Community College. The chef and participants prepare food for sale at the cafe, including pastries, bagels and salads. New Leaf is hopping on the steamed bagel trend, offering baristas the opportunity to learn how to use a unique kitchen gadget.
There are seven participants currently working at New Leaf, with room for a few more. The kitchen program out of SFCC is currently empty and looking for participants. New Leaf program director Ted Munat says that since the kitchen is farther from downtown and harder to get to, it's difficult to attract participants.
Nationwide, about half of people living in shelters and about 40% of people living on the streets have had jobs in the past year, according to a 2021 study by the University of Chicago. Munat thinks that's probably true for Spokane, too. His small team is focused not only on job training at New Leaf but on continued support for alumni, whose needs change from resume building and character references to emotional support and housing stability as they take up full-time jobs.
"The food industry is sometimes a hard place for people to get into because it's definitely not a sensitive field," Gunderson says. "It's kind of rough. If people can get a background in barista work or culinary work before getting thrown into that, it's better for their mental health overall. I love to say it's entry level, but it's really not."
Maybe the best part about serving coffee at the cafe is that baristas are usually surrounded by friends. The public library downtown is a common hangout spot for many unhoused people, which is often how participants find out about New Leaf in the first place.
James McKay has been behind the counter at New Leaf for about four weeks.
"I know a lot of people that hang out down here," McKay says. Which can be nice, except "when they sit there and make fun of you," he says sarcastically.
"No, it's not too bad," he continues. "These guys [at New Leaf] have given a lot to a lot of people down here. They go above and beyond. They don't have to do a lot of things they do, but they do it anyway."
Baristas at New Leaf practice their craft and hone their skills while surrounded by people they feel comfortable with, which is a great way to start any job. Even when they graduate or find new homes, the library continues to be an important community space.
Though she may have a job and a new apartment, New Leaf alumna Keefer will probably still frequent the library. She's a super fast reader, devouring everything but autobiographies. Between shifts at the casino, she'll come back to the cafe, the bookshelves, and the place she knows and loves.
"I sit upstairs many a rainy day. Just getting out of the rain, watching the people out there. Reading books. There's security, so you're safe. It's great." ♦
