NOVEMBER 2022
@HOME N E W S L E T T E R
ISSUE 133
Smell that Coffee? T
he smell of coffee wafts across the picturesque Hutton Settlement grounds
from a small brick building tucked behind the campus cottages in Millwood. Inside, commercial coffee equipment roasts several varieties of carefully sourced beans as part of a business started by three teenagers, who have named it quite appropriately as HOPE Neighborhood Roasters. HOPE, which stands for Hutton Opportunities for Professional Exploration, all started with a game of cornhole.
It’s the aroma of HOPE. their cultural awareness. Ritzmann loved the idea, and Wendle told them to make it happen. Just three days later, they had a grant application in to the Hagan Foundation for the seed money. That grant, along with help from local Millwood partners Bottles and the Concordia Masons, got the project off the ground. Ritzmann, along with 17-year-olds Roxy
him, leading to his placement at Hutton Settlement. The students each make an hourly wage from the project. The rest of the proceeds go to Hutton’s Sustainability and Leadership United Through Education (SALUTE) programs. SALUTE teaches land stewardship and sustainability using the National Geographic learning framework. “We want to make sure that we’re doing
Hutton Settlement is a children’s home founded in 1919 by Levi Hutton, who was himself an
Fredericksen and Kale Green , spearheaded the project. They went to the Small Business
programs here that are generating their own income,” Milliken said. “It really empowers our kids
orphan. Today the home is an alternative to foster care, where children live in one of four cottages on
Administration website to learn how to create a business plan and after a handful of drafts, Milliken
to get out and form new ventures.” Individual bags of delectable
the property with house parents while attending schools in the West Valley School District.
thought they were ready to roast some coffee. Finally, they purchased a commercial roaster
coffee, as well as yearly and half-year subscriptions, can be purchased at their
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a resident there, Parker Ritzmann, 18, decided to
from Dietrich Coffee Roasters, whose founder, Steve Diedrich, wondered what a place like the Hutton
website: www.hopecoffee.com/shop. They are also sold during the season at the Spokane
start a coffee stand on the Hutton Settlement campus to help pass the time in quarantine.
Settlement would do with one of his roasters. When he learned of the students behind it, he volunteered
Valley Farmer's Market, and at other local farmer's markets.
Not long after Ritzmann’s makeshift coffee stand began keeping staff members at Hutton
to visit Hutton Settlement weekly to train the students on “all things coffee,” Milliken said.
caffeinated, there was a cornhole tournament on campus, with the prize of a dinner out with Executive Director Chud Wendle and Campus Director David Milliken. Ritzmann won the tournament. At that dinner, Milliken, a home roaster himself, shared his idea to get a commercial coffee roaster at Hutton and create a program that taught students not only how to start their own business but also broadened
The experience has altered the lives of all three of the founders, particularly that of Parker Ritzmann, who wants to make a career out of coffee. “I want to study coffee more,” he said. “Go to Italy and study espresso over there, and even Costa Rica and study how coffee beans grow,” and this from a young man who was orphaned twice: first, at the age of five, when his Ethiopian parents died, and second, when his American adoptive parents rejected
HOPE
Hope Coffee Roasters hopecoffee.com
Adapted from an article by Emma Epperley and reprinted by kind permission of The Spokesman-Review