Charlottesville Tomorrow hosted two events at local coffee shops. Community Engagement Lead Sabrina Feggans and Community Editor Atlee Webber piloted a new, traveling community engagement series called Coffee & Conversation. We’d like to expand to cafés across the region. We knew we would set up a table and engage community members, but weren’t sure exactly how it would look. It turned out to be quite different at each location.

For JBird Supply Coffee Roasters/Florosa Bakery, we became a “sponsor” of a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony hosted by the Chamber of Commerce (of which we are a member). We bought 12 dozen donut holes (yes, you read that correctly) for the crowd and supported ribbon cutting costs. The one-hour event was for Florosa Bakery and its founder, Christina “Chris” Martin, who was there to christen her first brick-and-mortar location. The event was open to the public but the crowd skewed toward the local business crowd and avid Florosa fans, plus some general community members. The mayor attended and a local TV station also covered the event.

For Petite MarieBette, we covered coffee and pastries for all customers who came in from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. The crowd was general community members. We were right by the front door and made a sign that said “Coffee’s on us!” and put it at the cash register. The baristas gave customers a short spiel about who was paying for their coffee, e.g., “Charlottesville Tomorrow is covering coffee and pastries for the next hour. They’re a community-driven newsroom. You should say hi!” People generally came right up to us after they ordered to thank us for the coffee and/or treats, and most of them stayed to chat more about local news. We answered questions about our newsroom, and asked where people got local news (if anywhere), and what they’d like local news outlets to cover more of. We also shared opportunities to have their stories told through our First Person program and our general story idea submissions, plus shared information about our upcoming 2026 Voter Guide.

People were generally curious about what we were doing, especially at Petite MarieBette. Turns out free coffee is a great ice breaker! For Florosa, fellow members of the Chamber of Commerce shared their appreciation for us being there and showing up for small, local businesses.

We hope this will serve as a pilot for an ongoing, traveling event series throughout the year. Some advice for newsrooms interested in replicating this would be to be flexible in what collaboration with the local business might look like, and be ready to adjust to each environment. Also, be sure to factor in the barista tip, since if you are covering coffee the only way customers can give tips is by cash.

Contributed by Atlee Webber

Cite this article

Webber, Atlee (2026, June 2). Charlottesville Tomorrow. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/events/charlottesville-tomorrow/