The Student Newspaper of Saint Joseph’s University
Volume XCVII | Est. 1929 | www.sjuhawknews.com
Feb. 14, 2018
The Hub of Hope helps the homeless CHARLEY REKSTIS ’20 News Editor When visitors leave the cold streets of the city and walk down the stairs into the Hub of Hope, they end up in a warm, welllit reception area with many smiling faces. The smiles belong to staff and volunteers, but are also on the faces of people who may have just had a hot shower, dressed themselves in freshly laundered clothes, and are sipping on a warm cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Located under the 1500 block of Arch Street in Suburban Station, the Hub was opened at the end of January by Project HOME, a non-profit that provides services to people experiencing homelessness. “The highest concentration of people experiencing homelessness is in the center of the city, so it makes sense to have a service providing space in Center City like the Hub,” said Emily Hopkins ’17, hospitality coordinator for the Hub. The original Hub was created in a space that was a 900 square feet barber shop in the concourse below City Hall six years ago. It was open as a Winter walkin center in the Suburban Station train stop from January to April for three hours during the day, Monday through Friday, and for two hours in the evenings.
Emily Hopkins ’17 talks to Crystal Williams, a vistor to the Hub of Hope, in the recption area (Photo by Luke Malanga ’20).
The new hub is now 11,000 square feet and has a reception area, a commercial kitchen, a health services space, a case management office, an office that is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). New services in the Hub include three showers stalls, three washers and dryers, clothing, food, snacks, coffee, and a living
room that is bigger than the entire old hub was. The living room is modelled on a similar facility in Portland, Oregon, and according to Hopkins, was created so people who use the hub have “a space to call their own.” “This is really a community,” Hopkins said. “I know a lot of them by name, and a
lot of them know me by name, and that’s the case for most people who work in this field. We want this to be a respite and a place people can be safe, so when people realize that, they tend to come back.”
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Change at Einstein Bros. Bagels Coffee menu switches to Caribou brand
ALEX MARK ’20 Assistant News Editor Einstein Bros. Bagels in Merion Hall on the Maguire Campus switched out their current coffee menu for the Caribou Coffee drink line on Feb. 12. Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels are both owned by the same corporation: the Luxembourg-based JAB Holding Company, which owns other recognizable brands like Krispy Kreme, Panera Bread, and Keurig Green Mountain. According to Ken Goldbach, general manager of SJU dining, the JAB Holding Company notified Aramark, St. Joe’s
food service provider, about the coffee switch earlier this year. “They’re owned by the same company, so they’re two strong brands that they’re partnering together,” Goldbach said. This transition is one of many that JAB Holding Company has implemented at Einstein Bros. locations since its recent acquisition of the bagel company, Goldbach said. Goldbach explained that, in order to prepare for the new menu, Aramark had to procure certain smallwares, meaning glassware, utensils, small appliances, etc. and product components specific to the Caribou product line. “We received in advance notice that these
were items that we needed to procure to run the program,” Goldbach said. “So, from that piece, it’s very smooth.” St. Joe’s Dining did not start advertising the new menu before Feb. 9. By not promoting the change, the staff could ensure that supplies had enough time to arrive and employees had enough time to undergo sufficient training to deal with a potential increase in student demand. “When you’re going through these things the first day it’s hard to handle the volume, if it was that popular,” Goldbach said, “but we’re going to start pushing this more in order to get the word out.” To continue promoting the new menu,
St. Joe’s students waiting for coffee at Einstein Bros. in Merion Hall (Photo by Luke Malanga ’20).
Goldbach said, samples will be offered in Campion Student Center throughout the week, although there is no official sampling schedule. Einstein Bros. Bagel Staff were trained onsite by a representative from Caribou. Because Caribou not only has a different menu, but also prepares their drinks differently from Einstein Bros., the staff had to learn a whole new procedure for brewing and creating the new items, Goldbach said. For example, iced coffee, which under Einstein was poured from a dispensing tower by the student, will now be individually prepared by the barista for each order. The coffee itself is brewed at a temperature different from Einstein’s. Kasey Frederick ’21 noticed no change in the quality of coffee on the new Caribou menu, and and said she was content with the new options. “I really like Einstein’s coffee, so they’re both really good,” Frederick said. Jaime Cominsky ’19 said that she also noticed no change in the quality of her iced coffee. However, because it was prepared by the barista, Cominsky said that the new procedural step was “nice, because they asked me if I wanted to leave room for cream.” Overall, Goldbach said his desire for Einstein Bros. Bagel is that it provides St. Joe’s students with a high quality product that they will enjoy. “My hopes are really that, through our partnership with Einstein, and now Caribou, we’ve been able to bring a better quality product to campus for the students,” Goldbach said.“That we’re putting out a quality product consistently that represents the Caribou name and that students are ultimately happy with.”