Who We Are.
Woman Owned
Big Shoulders Coffee is a woman-owned hospitality company. At our foundation, we work to create a hospitality experience for both our employees and our guests. Our core tenant is service to each other. If we cannot care for each other, we certainly won’t be successful in caring for our guests and others.
We emphasize care in:
The way we act
2. The way we react
3. The way we look (body language)
4. The way we sound and how we say it
5. The way we think
Patricia Coonan, Owner & Co-Founder
A Commitment to Making Mistakes
Success is easy. Winning is easy. Growth isn’t. Growth comes through struggle—through mistakes, failures, and hard lessons. The beauty is in that struggle. We learn when we take responsibility, when we say, “I need help,” “That was my fault,” or “I’m sorry.” Those moments aren’t setbacks—they’re victories. Failing forward is how we grow, both as people and as leaders. And if we’re serious about building leaders, we have to make space for mistakes—because that’s where the real learning happens.
Divergent Thinking in Supply Chain
It is a mistake to look at supply chain diversity as just some sort of a social justice program and another box to check or a pat on the back. During the darkest days of COVID everyone encountered supply chain problems. It taught us that developing relationships with like-minded, often scrappy and creative businesses (sometimes in our own backyard) makes us smarter and more competitive in measurable ways that we can share with our customers. It’s not always about price or cost. More often than not, it’s about pride in craftsmanship, and speed on turnaround. Diverse suppliers can offer differentiated solutions that help our brand and your bottom line.
Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is
In a world where everyone is shouting into a megaphone, we choose to go another course. We support all sorts of initiatives, but we've chosen to remain modest and humble in carefully considering how we communicate this: We do so quietly because it's in our DNA.
The following incredible organizations we support:
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The Night Ministry is a Chicago-based organization whose mission is to provide human connection, housing support, and health care to those who are unhoused or experiencing poverty. We support them financially and provide coffee donations for brewing on cold Chicago nights.
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We help Black Creativity reach their goals to inspire and motivate children to consider the fields of science, technology, engineering and medicine. This program celebrates these achievements of young African Americans.
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For the last six years, we have participated in the Taste of Hope. This is the annual American Cancer Society fundraiser. Cancer will affect all of us at some point. It has taken people that we loved way too soon. The fight against and research for a cure has been one of our long-time commitments at Big Shoulders. We do it to remember Amy, our sister.
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Over the years we have supported Farmers Project. Their mission of doing things with integrity and grace strikes us, well, as just awesome. Most recently we contributed in their cause to buy proper clothing for harvesters during the wet, muddy season in Costa Rica.
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Working Bikes is another organization that we admire and support. Working Bikes strengthens local and global communities by giving donated bicycles new life and redistributing globally them as tools for self-determination.
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Parents who struggle to afford diapers often feel a deep sense of shame, sorrow, and guilt, despite nearly half of all U.S. families being in the same boat. MOD strives to change this with their Diaper Dollars program which provides diaper options firmly in parents' hands and removes stigma.
Sustainability as a Guide
We are believers in energy efficiency, ecology, leaving things better than we found them, but mostly we believe in impacting people in a way that they grow as humans. We think we’re on the right track but we’re far from done. Pre-Covid our North star was sustainability. Indeed, we’ve had, and continue to invest in, earth-friendly packaging, sustainable cups and lids, lighting, composting, up-cycling. We were having robust conversations and building relationships with vendors that were making a positive impact on our eco-system. When Covid hit us, the conversation was hijacked, and survival became sustainability. Now we are re-building and re-thinking everything. The circumstances of the way we thought about and performed our work has changed but the work itself hasn’t. We are performing our work more intentionally but our ambitions to make impact on our communities hasn’t waivered.
We roast all our coffee on Loring Smart Roasters. The most energy efficient roasters on the planet. We love our Loring Kestrel and Falcon. We produce low smoke roasts without the use of an energy-sucking external afterburner. Energy efficient Loring roasters allow us to save money on fuel while also producing low carbon emissions and low environmental impact. Super-heated air that usually goes straight up the stack is recirculated into the roast chamber so maintaining the target roast temperature can be managed more effectively with less energy usage. Loring’s have been utilized where some of the world’s most rigorous air compliance standards exist. We are also able to consistently produce sweet, balanced and tasty cups of coffee that have garnered us quite a bit of quality recognition.
Belonging
Just because we say our team reflects a range of backgrounds and experiences doesn’t mean we’re automatically succeeding at building a culture where everyone feels welcome and respected. Do people feel safe showing up as themselves? Do they feel part of something bigger, like they can contribute fully and grow here? Work isn’t always easy—sometimes it’s messy, sometimes it wears us down. But since it takes up so much of our lives, shouldn’t it offer more than just a paycheck? Shouldn’t it give us a sense of dignity? We believe it should. No one should have to do soul-crushing work or play politics just to be seen or succeed. Instead, we aim for real solutions, shared purpose, and a sense of pride in what we’re building together—even knowing we’ll fall short some days. What matters is that we keep moving toward something better: honest engagement, humility, and openness to people who aren’t just like us. In the end, it’s communication—clear, caring, courageous—that unlocks understanding. And when that happens, we all feel it. It fills us up.
