BLK & Bold is proudly rooted in Des Moines, Iowa, a city that grounds our identity and fuels our growth. What began as two friends roasting beans in a garage has grown into a national brand with a 33,000-square-foot production facility that supplies our specialty roasts to more than 12,000 retailers, including Target, Amazon, Whole Foods, Hy-Vee, Safeway, and Walgreens. With every new shelf we reach, we expand access to premium coffee for everyday consumers while channeling more dollars back into the communities we serve.
We’ve grown from leasing space behind a brewery to being named Iowa’s fastest-growing private company three years running—and in 2023, reaching No. 61 on the Inc. 5000 list (the highest rank for any Iowa-based business). Today, BLK & Bold is an internationally known brand, partnering with iconic names like Marvel’s Black Panther franchise, Ben & Jerry’s, and the NBA. We serve as the official coffee supplier for the NBA’s headquarters in New Jersey and New York, as well as Microsoft’s global headquarters.
Through it all, we’ve remained grounded in the city that shaped us while building pathways of impact nationwide.
Our commitment to Des Moines extends beyond philanthropy. Just as we source coffee with transparency, we choose financial partners with intention. By banking locally, we’ve built relationships with institutions that understand both our mission and our roots. These partnerships have provided the capital and stability needed to scale BLK & Bold from a neighborhood startup to a nationally distributed brand—all while keeping investment circulating in the community we call home.
Local banking partners do more than manage our accounts; they share in our vision. In Des Moines, every dollar we deposit and every cup we sell strengthens not only our business, but also the economic vitality of the city that grounds us.
From that strong local foundation, BLK & Bold fuels opportunity in communities across the United States. Active in 10+ cities—from Philadelphia and New York to Chicago, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta, Oakland, and beyond—For Our Youth serves low-income youth ages 5–18, with a focus on Title I schools, systems-impacted youth, and young people in under-resourced neighborhoods.
Our partner network empowers young people to pursue success in many forms:
- Urban farming programs like Cloud 9 Farms (Philadelphia), Acta Non Verba (Oakland), City Growers (Brooklyn), and Urban Growers Collective (Chicago) give young people hands-on agricultural skills while expanding food access and advancing food justice.
- Tech and innovation programs such as Comp-U-Dopt (Houston) and the Center for Black Innovation (Miami) close digital divides and expose youth to coding, entrepreneurship, and innovation pathways.
- Creative and cultural programs like Juxtaposition Arts (Minneapolis) and Sunset Youth Services (San Francisco) nurture artistic power and healing, while The Black Man Can (national) builds confidence and leadership through authentic representation and mentorship.
- Education and guidance programs such as Youth Guidance (Chicago), By Degrees Foundation (Des Moines), and Kid Power (Washington, D.C.) provide academic support, mentorship, and wellness resources; while Greening Youth Foundation (Atlanta) and LA Conservation Corps (Los Angeles) equip youth with environmental training, conservation careers, and paid job experience.
Together, these partnerships extend BLK & Bold’s local values across the nation, ensuring that every cup of coffee contributes to a stronger future for youth, wherever our customers live. What began in Des Moines now resonates nationwide, uniting local roots with a national movement to power the next generation.
Fair Trade helps level the field by setting a minimum price floor, enforcing rigorous social and environmental standards, and linking cooperatives with more stable, long-term trading partners—all while channeling premiums into farmer-led projects.
For a company our size, being among the top 30 Fair Trade Certified coffee roasters in the U.S. is no small feat. Since becoming Fair Trade Certified, BLK & Bold’s sourcing has generated over $150,000 in cumulative contributions to the Community Development Fund. That impact grows with every bag of certified coffee we purchase.
What matters most is how those dollars are used. Farmers—not companies—decide where the premiums go. In Honduras, one cooperative used funds to create a virtual classroom so students could continue their education during the pandemic. In Peru, growers have invested in both healthcare—building a dentist’s office for the entire community—and environmental initiatives like agroforestry projects that pair reforestation with sustainable coffee production. Premiums have also supported childcare centers, financial literacy training, solar panels powering local clinics, and programs for the next generation of farmers.
This is why Fair Trade is more than a certification. It extends BLK & Bold’s commitment to social impact beyond our U.S. initiatives—embedding it across our entire value chain, from the farmers who grow our beans to the communities where they’re roasted, distributed, and enjoyed. Every bag of BLK & Bold coffee not only fuels purpose here at home, but also strengthens farming communities abroad, proving that great coffee can create shared value across livelihoods and landscapes.
