Blk & Bold coffee partners with Ben & Jerry's with
JV product / to support communities
Blk & Bold coffee is jointly introducing a cold brew coffee ice cream with
marshmallow swirls and fudge brownies with Ben & Jerry's. The limited
edition flavor is named Change is Brewing to
attract support for the People's Response Act, a bill Rep. Cori Bush,
D-Missouri, introduced to the House of Representatives in June.
Change is
Brewing
will be available on the Ben & Jerry's website with a template email form attached
for customers to express their support of the People's Response Act. It's also
available at select grocery stores in Des Moines, Iowa where Blk & Bold is
headquartered.
The
flavor was announced at an event in Washington D.C., where Bush said
the bill would establish a division within the Department of Health &
Human Services for a "health-centered approach" to public
safety.
Blk
and Bold co-founders Rod Johnson and Pernell Cezar said the collaboration
aligns with their company's mission to donate proceeds to community and social
services.
"We
started this business to support people who had run up against the kind of
obstacles that we were fortunate to overcome, and to be able to reinvest in the
organizations that are attempting to service that community," Johnson
said.
Johnson
and Cezar started the coffee and tea wholesaling business in 2018 at their home
in Des Moines, quickly establishing themselves as the first Black-owned
coffee company with nationally distributed products.
Their
products can now be found in more than 1,400 stores across the U.S.
"It's
very rewarding to have that amplified by way of our partnership with Ben &
Jerry's," Johnson said. "Again, I don't have the words to fully
describe that, but the more that our business grows, the more our support grows
for that very vulnerable demographic."
A
portion of the proceeds from Change is
Brewing will go to grassroots organizations "working to transform
public safety in America," according to a press release from Ben &
Jerry's.