Together Café combats human trafficking
Coffee shops can easily be swallowed up, often a dime a dozen. Here today, gone soon after. What seems like a dream job—the peaceful life of owning a coffee shop—often boils down to a dense brew of really hard work.
Typically, a local economy will lift up the good ones and weed out the shops that have no place, the soulless ones without anything special or unique to offer.
Together Café has shown up with some very large shoes. This honey and milk latte that I’m merely drinking for research purposes is exquisitely flavorful, perfectly balanced, craftfully sweetened, and served at an ideal consumption temperature.
You’ll often get some of these qualities, yet rarely all together in a perfect cup of America’s favorite roasted delight. And truthfully, I don’t even like it as much as the taste-bud tingling Turmeric Latte that I had here right before this one…errr last week I mean.
Together Café may be a top-notch place to grab an artfully crafted cup of joe or a snack from their seemingly ever-expanding display of tasty treats, but the shop has a much stronger humanitarian calling. They aim at the ambitious goal of battling human trafficking.
The tires should screech to a halt here. We could decide to brush this off and say “hooray for charity” before whisking ourselves off to our next task. But, rather than hiding on our comfortable couches, let’s take a moment to think about what human trafficking is and what it means for our world.
As you can imagine, compiling statistics about the economic trade of human beings is a massive undertaking resulting in unreliable data. Statistical records are not taken and shared publicly by these underground syndicates that break the law for economic gain, especially when their business is as heinous as the purchase and sale of other human beings.
The facts become even muddier when the multitudinous array of human trafficking is considered, such as refugees trapped in indentured servitude in trade for passage from war-torn countries and failed states.
Together Café specifically focuses on the sexual exploitation of females and, too commonly, children. It is, very disturbingly, a $150-billion global industry annually, with $100 billion of that attributed to sexual slavery. It is the world’s fastest-growing crime. Some 72 percent of Tennessee’s counties have reported underaged trafficking. And that’s just what’s being reported.
A striking number of young women forced into this lifestyle are runaways. But we don’t have to hop around the world with big guns and massive explosions like James Bond or Liam Neeson in Taken in order to do our part to work towards a more improved society.
It can be as simple as visiting somewhere like Together Café or donating to Second Life Tennessee. It can be as easy as keeping our eyes open and reporting suspicious activity. No damage will be done if you say something and were mistaken. But just imagine what could happen if you think something is wrong and don’t speak up, but you were right?
You can visit Together Café on South Orchard Knob Avenue at Kirby Avenue weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (6 p.m. on Wednesdays) and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
In addition to delicious coffee and snacks, the location is comfortable and inviting, a superb place to study, read, write, or catch up with friends. It’s handsomely decorated and parking is free and just outside.
While you’re sipping your cup, you can know that your money is going directly towards helping the world transform into a better place.
For more information, visit them at togethercafe.org, secondlifetn.org and check out #breakthebarcode.