Wake Up, Temple

The aroma of freshly roasted coffee fills the air at Feed My Sheep as center launches new business

Apr 22, 2023

Casey Mooney, operations director at Feed My Sheep, adjusts the coffee roaster to create a batch of Wake Up Coffee. The new brand was fired up this week. David Stone photo

DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE

Wake up and drink some coffee, then go out and make the world a better place. That’s the message of Wake Up, a new coffee roasting business at Feed My Sheep in Temple.

The first batches of Guatemalan light, medium and dark roasted beans were created in a back room at the Avenue G community center this week.

“We started with Guatemalan beans we get from a single farm in Central America,” said Casey Mooney, Feed My Sheep’s director of operations and coffee expert. “We will probably try some Ethiopian beans next.”

While the goal of Wake Up is to provide top-shelf coffee beans to its customers, Mooney said he hopes the product shines a spotlight on activities and services at Feed My Sheep.

“We go through a lot of coffee here at Feed My Sheep, so we thought: Why not roast our own beans? We got our roaster through the Rockrose Foundation. They bought the roaster, and I have some knowledge about roasting,” Mooney said. “I was the culinary director of a coffee business in Dallas.”

Although Mooney, Feed My Sheep Executive Director Jeff Stegall and volunteers roasted the first batches, the plan is for Feed My Sheep clients to get involved and start their own mini coffee businesses.

“The packages have a QR code on the back, and if you scan the code it will provide background on the person who roasted and packaged your coffee,” Mooney said. “It will give you their story, and that person will get the money from the coffee you purchase.”

The coffee will be sold at local farmers markets and eventually online, and bags of roasted beans are available now at Feed My Sheep.

“We go to the Salado market every other weekend and several others,” Stegall said. “Feed My Sheep clients also sell baked goods such as cookies and banana bread, jams, jellies, pickles and jewelry at these markets. We provide the opportunity for our clients to learn a skill and make some money selling what they create.”

Stegall said Feed My Sheep would like to sell coffee to local churches and other organizations, as well as Temple-area residents.

“The whole point of Wake Up Coffee is to try and get everyone to see what is occurring in our community,” Stegall said. “We want people to know they have the power to be part of the solution for good.”

“I’m not naïve enough to believe a brand of coffee will change the world, but I do believe with all my heart that if people wake up to the fact that the world can change for the better, it will,” he said. “That would be incredible.”