Dean’s Beans Donates $26,000 to Support Massachusetts School Food Programs

ORANGE — As school districts continue to provide critical food resources to students while schools are closed for the rest of the academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dean’s Beans, a social-justice company that uses coffee to create positive change around the world, has donated $5,000 to Springfield Public Schools, $5,000 to Greenfield Public Schools, $4,000 to Athol-Royalston Regional School District, $4,000 to Gill-Montague Regional School District, $3,500 to Orange elementary schools, $2,500 to Ralph C. Mahar Regional School, and $2,000 to Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools. Contributions were based on the number of students the district feeds each day.

Dean’s Beans has seen a surge in web sales as coffee drinkers are brewing more at home due to social distancing and telecommuting. With coronavirus causing great economic hardship, the company has chosen to share the money from these web sales with the community by helping to fund school food programs.

“Making sure children have access to food throughout this pandemic is crucial, and we are proud to support these essential programs in Springfield, Amherst, and Orange,” said Dean Cycon, founder and CEO of Dean’s Beans. “The success of a business should be about more than the sum of dollars kept. Part of a company’s profitability is the positivity it generates for others, and we are committed to helping our communities ease the pain of this crisis.”

Dean’s Beans is continuing outreach to other local school districts as the company seeks to increase its impact on child hunger.

“We truly appreciate Dean’s Beans’ financial support, as we are currently operating at a deficit serving meals,” said Patrick Roach, chief financial and operations officer for Springfield Public Schools. “There is a lot of food insecurity in our city, and often school programs are a child’s only source for meals. Contributions from our community are incredibly helpful as we continue to deliver this important service to students.”

The company has also launched a “Thousand Pounds of Light” campaign to donate 1,000 pounds of coffee to people on the front lines and those whose jobs and livelihoods have been directly impacted by the virus, and continues to supply food banks, survival centers, and other organizations with free coffee. Additionally, Dean’s Beans has donated 33,500 coffee tin ties to home mask makers and small businesses in 12 different states who are using the tin ties to secure face masks that are being distributed for free to frontline workers and first responders.