<div>Hello everyone. We are Sarah and Michael McCoy and Michael Acosta, the owners of Story and Soil Coffee. We built this business 8 years ago, wanting a community space to share ideas, celebrate all identities, and do so over beautiful coffees and teas.
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<div>4 years ago we expanded from our tiny Hartford storefront to a shared space with a bookstore in a building owned by Wesleyan University. It was a huge endeavor and risk for us, being very much in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We did so believing in the commitment to small businesses and in a shared vision for the space.
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<div>We LOVED serving the Wesleyan community. The students have been kind and welcoming, patient and so supportive. Earlier this week a number of them approached our baristas, concerned that Story and Soil was leaving campus.
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<div>This was news to us.
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<div>We reached out to our Wesleyan contacts and heard nothing for 2 days. On Thursday, May 1, we received an official letter terminating our agreement with no explanation. Had we not heard from the students earlier, we believe Wesleyan officials would have given us even less time.
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<div>We are heartbroken, not only for ourselves, but for our employees and the student body. Some of our employees helped open the space 4 years ago and remain committed to our vision and mission for what hospitality should look like. And the students, many of whom should be focusing on finals and celebrating their upcoming graduation, are wondering how they can help us.
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<div>We are launching this GoFundMe to help in this time of transition. This includes supporting our Middletown employees as they seek to find new employment, unexpectedly, and for us to be pay off the last of the small business loan we took out to be able to serve Middletown. With no notice and a lack of communication all year, Wesleyan is putting a largely queer staff at risk with no opportunity to plan for their future. These individuals have been responsible for creating a safe space for all during a time where marginalized communities feel anything but safe.
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<div>For most of us, coffee and hospitality is just a part of the way we serve. Many of us are involved in advocacy work for affordable housing, LGBTQIA+ rights, economic justice, etc. This work has taught us that it is our community who will support and sustain us. We are taking a Mutual Aid type approach in this fundraiser. We expect funds to be split between employees based on the time they've worked with us, their current needs, and how much we are able to raise. Any left over funds will go to paying down the loan we took out to open the space. 
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<div>In this time of change, we thank you for all of the ways you have helped to ease this pain. We have been inundated with encouraging messages, offers to help, and beautiful anecdotes. Thank you.
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<div>We look forward to serving you in Hartford!
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spencer arnold

Kathleen Hagearty

Tony Garcia

Roger Therrien

Andrew DiFiore

Kendra Zdanowski

Anonymous

heather short

Chantell Boissiere-Kelly

Kaitlin M Higgins

N Earnshaw

Steven Nakash

Stephanie Giacco

Britta Bean

Ajay Mathew

Johanna Newman

Maia Tivony

Elisa Funteral

Ryan Philips

Story and Soil Cafe Forced to Move On

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

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Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

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categoryGroup

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fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Story and Soil Cafe Forced to Move On

Still $13,506 to go. Help us build momentum.