Brewing Community — One Cup at a Time

A dream in progress. A community in motion.

Grounds of Hope Coffee Co. is a mission-driven social enterprise created to bring dignity, nourishment, and stability to individuals and families on Chicago’s Far South Side, especially the corridor surrounding 95th and the Red Line. This area has experienced decades of disinvestment, visible homelessness, food insecurity, and a lack of safe community spaces. The purpose of Grounds of Hope is to create a warm, community-anchored café that generates sustainable revenue to support Grounds of Hope Community Care, a nonprofit providing meals, hygiene items, infant supplies, and emergency support to neighbors experiencing severe homelessness.

The mission of Grounds of Hope Coffee Co. is to serve as a place of nourishment, belonging, and stability for those who need it most. The café will function as both a neighborhood gathering space and a funding engine for long-term community care. The vision is to build a community hub that blends high-quality coffee, local employment, and social impact, ultimately expanding into a 24-hour community care center that provides consistent support to individuals and families in crisis.

Grounds of Hope is guided by values of dignity, community, nourishment, accessibility, sustainability, and transparency. Every person deserves to be treated with respect and humanity. The work is rooted in the Far South Side, serving residents, commuters, students, elders, and individuals experiencing homelessness. Nourishment is understood as both food and emotional safety. Accessibility ensures that services are reachable and welcoming. Sustainability is achieved through a social enterprise model that reduces reliance on donations. Transparency ensures that the community understands how funds are used and how impact is measured.

The business model includes two interconnected components: the café, which offers a South Side–themed drink menu, a warm and safe environment, and local hiring; and the nonprofit arm, which provides meals, hygiene kits, infant supplies, and emergency support. Café revenue, combined with grants and donations, sustains the nonprofit’s operations. The target population includes individuals experiencing homelessness, CTA riders seeking warmth or food, people walking neighborhood blocks asking for help, and families and commuters who need a safe community space.

The long-term plan unfolds over three to four years. The first year focuses on legal setup, menu development, branding, and pop-up events. The second year includes securing a location near 95th and the Red Line, completing build-out, hiring staff, and launching café operations. The third year focuses on expanding the menu, strengthening partnerships, and increasing revenue to support the nonprofit arm. By the fourth year, the goal is to launch a 24-hour community care center and scale meal and essentials distribution.

Grounds of Hope Coffee Co. is a sustainable, community-rooted response to homelessness and food insecurity. The café will serve as a gathering space and a revenue source for the nonprofit, ensuring long-term impact. The Far South Side faces high levels of homelessness and food insecurity, with individuals sleeping on CTA buses and trains for warmth, limited safe indoor spaces, fragmented resources, and decades of economic disinvestment. Grounds of Hope is designed to respond to these gaps with a sustainable, community-centered solution.

Grant funding will support menu development, pop-up events, equipment, legal setup, nonprofit operations, and early planning for location scouting and build-out. These investments create the foundation needed to move from concept to operation. The impact goals include increasing access to nourishment, creating a safe community space, building a sustainable funding engine for community care, strengthening community stability, creating local employment, and shifting the narrative of the 95th Street corridor toward hope and dignity.

Expected outcomes include hosting five to ten pop-ups and distributing 300 to 500 meals and essential items in the first year; opening the café and serving more than 1,000 customers per month in years two and three; and launching a 24-hour community care center serving more than 5,000 individuals annually by year four. Organizational capacity is grounded in strong founder leadership, a clear roadmap, a sustainable social enterprise model, early partnerships, and transparent funding practices.

Grounds of Hope Coffee Co. is led by Ashley Hickman, a lifelong resident of the Far South Side with lived experience and deep cultural understanding of the community surrounding 95th and the Red Line. She brings mission-driven communication skills, operational discipline, and a commitment to dignity-centered care. Her leadership is grounded in authenticity, resilience, and long-term community commitment.

The Far South Side faces significant community need. Homelessness and food insecurity are visible daily, with individuals relying on CTA buses and trains for warmth. Safe indoor spaces are limited, resources are fragmented, and decades of disinvestment have left the area without consistent community anchors. Grounds of Hope Coffee Co. directly addresses these gaps by providing nourishment, stability, employment, and a sustainable funding model for community care.

Click Here to read our vision for Ground of Hope Community Care