Written by Kylie Akins
This cup of coffee is life-changing. It doesn’t just maintain a sleep-deprived student’s GPA. This cup of coffee gives a community across the world a well. It provides a family with a goat and the education to benefit people for generations to come. It gives malnourished children the food they need to conquer a rising mortality rate.
In a financial arrangement between a nonprofit entity and a for-profit business,the Kibo Group, an organization that raises funds for development initiative projects for East African communities, bought local coffee shop Midnight Oil.
Midnight Oil now serves as a long-term fundraiser for Kibo with all profits (after employee and operational costs have been paid) benefiting the projects Kibo has created.
The new managers, Isaac and Lynn Bruning, are both Harding graduates with a unique connection and passion for Midnight Oil. Not only was Lynn employed by the coffee shop for six years, but the now-married couple met (and once broke up) at Midnight Oil as well.
The external changes are evident: the renovations, new coffee machines, increased number of electrical outlets, current photo gallery and a conference room. But the mission Kibo and the manager duo brings becomes clearer with every minute spent in their new venue, Isaac said.
“[Kibo] purchased this because they love the community aspect of a coffee shop,” Isaac said. “We want this to be a community-based, relationship-rich place that also incorporates the passion for African mission, caring for others outside of ourselves, being aware of what is needed and what we can do in Africa, and how one person can make a difference when we provide access through all of [Kibo’s] various projects.”
The Brunings came from working together in a Missouri bakery back to Searcy to work for Kibo through Midnight Oil’s new business and mission arrangement after one opportune phone call with Mark Moore, a founding member of Kibo and CEO of the organization’s projectMother Administered Nutritive Aid (MANA).
“When it came up, it completely resonated on a soul-level,” Lynn said. “This is the kind of work and mission we want to be involved in and strive toward. We have a passion for the place. It is so special. We just love it.”
The couple plans to implement several projects specifically for the coffee shop and also for Kibo, including concerts, storytelling, poetry reading, art galleries and an event on Sept. 4 to introduce the community to Kibo and its projects.
“We just want to be cultivating art and life in every form,” Isaac said. “We want to connect with people who like to be here and celebrate the things that they bring to us.”
The co-managers bring a passion for excellence in coffee and food and have also lowered the menu’s prices, particularly espresso drinks which they call “a necessary luxury” for most college students.
Bethany Holder, a loyal customer to Midnight Oil and graduate student in Harding’s Master in Reading program, said she has enjoyed the changes to her coffee shop “home.”
“It was a weird thing at first,” Holder said. “I was so used to the old style and seating, but I like the new changes. And I know several people on the Kibo Group board. I am a big supporter and a friend to them, and I think it’s a great thing that [Midnight Oil] is doing.”
The Kibo Group and the Brunings are working to empower the Searcy community to make a difference in the lives of people in a developing country and people in the chair next to them. Midnight Oil will become a place where the Kibo story is told, the couple said.
“This is a redemptive business,” Isaac said. “The heart of this place is very simple. Our idea is to make it a place that is welcoming. We want to train our staff to love the people and make them feel cared for.
“Whether it is students or local people, the whole spectrum of humanity, we want them to know that they are cared for and welcomed. Only in that realm can the vision of Kibo and ours, the community of love, be created.”
