Birchwood Coffee has decided to end its Pay-it-Forward donation program, which allowed customers to donate money towards feeding the homeless. The main reason is due to safety concerns, according to Jawah Scott, the store’s owner.
Scott said the program had been running for seven years but over this summer, it had become more of a liability than anything.
She said the store had experienced incidents of people screaming and yelling at staff and customer, with some even resorting to violence.
“I’ve had people try to punch our customers and one of our staff,” she said. “That was a year ago, but regardless, they’re (becoming) very violent, very unpredictable and made people scream outside the coffee shop for a good 40 minutes.”
The program worked like a tip cup, where customers could give money that the shop would then use to provide food and drinks to those in need. There were rules in place that prohibited individuals from being drunk or belligerent when receiving help.
Scott said police were sometimes called for assistance, but since instances continued to rise, she had no choice but to end the program.
“It just got to a point where unfortunately, it was doing us more bad than good,” she said.
Scott said the store did try to push forward despite the challeges, especially with the wildfire in Hay River bringing more people into town.
“Some people were really respectful of it,” she said. “We had one guy, who is homeless, come in on a regular basis. He was really nice and even when he had some funds, he would put it toward the pay-it-forward, like a ‘thank you for helping’.”
Scott said she was heartbroken at having to end the program and while the future of the program is uncertain, she hopes that things will calm down after this summer and that they may be able to resume it at some point.