SACRAMENTO, Calif — Dutch Bros Coffee raised over $500,000 for just Northern California causes in 2018. In total, the coffee company donated over $4 million to various causes last year.
Nikol Grubbs, the owner of multiple Dutch Bros locations in Sacramento, said that all Dutch Bros locations are to participate in at least four fundraisers each year. She said that often shops will have more fundraisers than what is required.
"Historically, giving back is the foundation Dutch Bros was built on," Grubbs said. "It's a people-driven business."
By April 2019, Dutch Bros in the greater Sacramento area had raised a total of $93,664 for three causes — the Natalie Corona Memorial Fund, the families of two Dixon teens who died, and for Cassidy Sidhu, who is battling brain cancer for the second time.
Grubbs said that Dutch Bros allows for them to give back to customers, employees or community members who have faced a tragedy.
"They give to us and we give back to them when it is needed," she said.
The Lodi Dutch Bros raised $3,562 on Feb.1 to help Sidhu with her medical expenses. Sidhu said that, so far, the money raised has helped her and her family cover the cost of travel to her treatments in San Fransico as well as medical costs.
"It was absolutely incredible," Sidhu said. "I am so grateful of all the people that have helped."
Sidhu was first diagnosed with brain cancer at age 10. This January, nine years after her first diagnosis, she found out that her cancer had returned. Her boyfriend's coworker suggested that they held a fundraiser to help her.
Grubbs said that Dutch Bros aims to be a place where people can come to when they need an outlet when something negatively affects the community.
"We want to connect as humans," Grubbs said. "We try to be that place for that connection to happen."
Dutch Bros is a drive-thru coffee company that was opened by two brothers in Grant Pass, Ore. back in 1992. The company has 290 locations and boasts that it donates over $2 million every year to many charities and causes.
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