Abide Coffeehouse co-owner and Abide Foundation executive director Austin Shission stands under his business’ tent during the second annual Back to the Grind fall festival on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre. Sam Zavada | Times Leader After flooding closed down Abide Coffeehouse for two months last summer, the shop’s co-owner Austin Shission found himself getting restless. He needed something to fill that gap of time.
To do just that, he established the Back to the Grind fall festival on Public Square. Around the same time, he founded the Abide Foundation, which helps community members with their day-to-day needs. Mothers needing food for their children, locals looking for temporary shelter, and college students who require help to pay for their books can look to the Abide Foundation for some monetary assistance.
This year, the second annual Back to the Grind fall festival is supporting the Abide Foundation as a fundraiser. What was a one-night event last year is now taking place over the course of a weekend, from Friday to Sunday.
“We’re not here to make a buck for the shop,” Shission said of the festival’s goals. “We’re here to raise money for the foundation…”
This year’s festival features live music, vendors, games, and food. It also allows amateur sleuths to participate in a citywide scavenger hunt, which will net the winner a year’s worth of free coffee.
Shission cast an inclusive net when it came to picking out the Back to the Grind vendors. Some, such as Front Porch Bake Shop and Sinfully Sweet, are already among Abide’s most consistent collaborators, with their offerings being available at the coffeehouse.
Other vendors might come as a surprise to the festival’s patrons. Coffee Inclusive, for example, might seem like a competitor to the unknowing onlooker. Shission certainly doesn’t see it that way.
“We don’t have competitors,” Shission said. “There’s enough coffee to go around to everybody. So it’s like, let’s get the community together. I don’t care what business you are. We want to promote all of the businesses, no matter where you are in the [Wyoming] Valley, especially Wilkes-Barre. If we help each other, everyone wins in the end.”
Kaitlin Hall, marketing and development director at Coffee Inclusive and PA Inclusive, agreed that competition is basically a non-factor when it comes to her interactions with Abide.
“We just love how they [at Abide] embrace us and what we do at Coffee Inclusive,” Hall said, before adding: “We’re all selling coffee but we have our own different things going on.”
Coffee Inclusive employs adults with disabilities and teaches them every facet of a coffee shop’s operations.
Christina Wesley and Ellie Bartoli, who were working at the Coffee Inclusive tent alongside Hall, offered glowing reviews of the Coffee Inclusive environment.
“I love going to work everyday,” said Wesley.
On the opposite side of Public Square from where Coffee Inclusive’s tent was set up, Joshua Keiper, candy chef and owner of Naked Toffee, was happy to be a part of the “Back to the Grind” fall festival for the first time.
“It’s a good time, good location. Public Square in Wilkes-Barre is a great place to be, especially on the weekends,” Keiper said.
A toffee-maker based out of Carbondale, Naked Toffee is another participating vendor that emphasizes giving back to the community.
“That’s part of being a good business, and a good corporate entity,” Keiper said of his charitable efforts over the years. “As a business owner, you know that you can’t exist without the community that you came from. So, giving back is part of your obligation as a business owner.”
Back to the Grind will continue Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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