Every organization thrives on employees who are skilled and passionate enough to enhance their skills to meet the demands of the mainstream job market. As such we recently had Eli come over to the Collegium and teach our staff a Master class in Coffee. On March 28 he gave us an introductory overview of coffee history, cultivation, trade, storage, roasting, grinding, extraction, and presentation. We focused on how best to prepare and serve espresso using the equipment available at the Café, including all sorts of best practices for baristas.
Eli presently works as a CAD/CAM technician and machinist at Progressive Machine on East B Street, Pasco. He is a handyman with wide-ranging interests. He started working with coffee way back in 2005 and spent thirteen years working in cafes and learning about specialty coffee in Portland. He worked in the Coffee business in various areas such as learning techniques for roasting coffee, in addition to taking on managerial responsibilities. During his tenure with Case Study Coffee he was trained by La Marzocco and Synesso as an espresso machine technician and later took on the responsibility of repairing, maintaining, and expanding all the appliances and equipment necessary for their three cafes, a roasting operation, and coffee catering services. He was also involved with the entire build-out of Case Study’s Alberta Street location, and for a time was the manager of the whole catering arm.
The training was special as we had Dinah Ballast visiting us from the Philippines. She works with the Shepherds home of Servant Leadership and is here to learn about the Café and Coffee business and hopefully do something similar back home that would generate jobs and at the same time become a community center that can bring people together, build relationships and grow in their spiritual wellbeing. We wish her all the best for her future.
We also extend our gratitude to Eli for equipping our staff with additional skills that will make them perform with greater efficiency. We are happy to partner with like minded people who share a similar passion that we do at the Center for Sharing. We therefore look forward to your support as we continue to reach out to people that need our help. We appreciate your support and partnership.
ABRAHAM REGUNTA