Sunlight twinkled through the paper banner taped over Wake Up Coffee Company's front window a week before its opening on Tuesday.
Wade Preston, shouted down from a ladder while he sanded the whitewashed walls of the formerly sherbet-colored interior.
"We kind of did the opposite of what most people do when they find out they're expecting a child," said Preston, who owns the second location of the globally-minded coffeehouse started in 2009 by Bo Mann in St. Simon's Island, Ga. "We'd rather have our kid grow up knowing that her parents lived out their calling," he said.
The 2006 Auburn philosophy graduate met his wife while both were working for nonprofit organizations.
While living in North Florida the couple became close friends with Mann and regulars at Wake Up Coffee.
A mission trip to Liberia, however, solidified their dream to help further economic growth in developing countries by opening a branch of Mann's fair trade coffee shop.
"I think going to Liberia and just seeing how they live there and the difference that an education and opportunity can make in their lives. Individuals and families and entire communities are being transformed when they can find meaningful well-paid work. I think that's probably what got us hooked," Megan Preston said.
Preston left his position in college ministry at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, to train as a barista at Batdorf and Bronson Coffee Roasters and The Dancing Goat's Coffee Bar, eventually winning third in the Southeast Regional Barista Competition in 2012.
The Prestons then made the decision to spread the practice of fair trade coffee and retail goods to Auburn.
"Coffee is a $90 billion industry and it's predicated completely of people who live between the 20th parallels in some of the most economically depressed nations in the world," Wade Preston said, "It can be a tool to empower them or a weapon to oppress them depending on how it's used."
In order to ensure coffee bean farmers get a fair percentage of sales profits, Wake Up Coffee Company deals exclusively with fair and direct trade models.
The company also has partnerships with farmer-direct coffee importers, like Thrive Coffee.
Many bags of coffee in the shop are marked with the familiar Fair Trade label, but some remain unlabeled.
"Every time you have a Fair Trade logo on a bag of coffee, you're paying 25 cents to the Fair Trade organization. A lot of the stuff we do is more like direct trade. So we give the 25 cents directly to the farmer instead of paying for the little stamp," said Chandler Roberds, a junior in human development and family studies, and a barista at Wake Up.
Wade Preston explained that direct trade procedures are the best way to give the farmers a fair cut of the profits.
"Some of them are direct partnerships with folks that we know on the ground in places like Nicaragua, for example. We work on a direct trade partnership there--like we actually know the producer," he said, "Here's the farmer's phone number, if you speak Spanish you can call him."
Wake Up Coffee Company has made a $.25 million impact on developing countries since its opening, according to Wade Preston, who is eager to educate others about the importance of fair trade practices.
"If we can pay attention to the way we act as consumers--because that's what we are in America--if you can think of yourself as a responsible consumer then you can make a large impact on the world without being the type of person who can stroke a check for tens of thousands of dollars, and that's one of the reasons we exist," he said.
In addition to selling organic and fair trade coffee, Wake Up specializes in handmade artisan goods.
Megan Preston explained that while she will be running the coffee bar some and managing baristas, the majority of her responsibility revolves around the retail portion. "I'm buying from companies that work directly with artisan groups in the developing world and pay them a fair wage to create these products which help put them and their families out of poverty," she said.
One company Wake Up works with employs HIV-positive women in Ethiopia who make jewelry out of artillery shells that are gathered by farmers in fields of civil conflicts. Preston said she was excited to show people the difference their dollar can make in
impoverished countries and that there are alternatives to their usual spending habits. Wake Up carries fair trade jewelry and scarves as well as more practical home goods. Ultimately, Wake Up Coffee Company seeks to become a gathering place for the Auburn community.
"We want to make awesome coffee and awesome products, but more than anything just create a space for people," said Wade Preston. After the closing of Cambridge Coffee and Taylor's Bakery, the Prestons saw a need for a coffee shop on College Street. Wake Up Coffee Company plans to stay open until midnight with extended hours during exams so students can relax and study.
Later in the spring, Wake Up will carry craft beer on tap from Monday Night Brewing, wine and fair trade chocolate, and by the fall Wake Up Coffee's espresso truck should be up and running on campus. And though the last business to occupy 131 S. College Street closed after only a couple of years, the Prestons are optimistic about their location.
"To walk out the door and see Toomer's and Samford Hall--this is my office," said Wade Preston, "We want the heart of this shop to be about the same things that Auburn's about: about family, about community, about doing things the right way."
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