Cup of Joe for a Joe | Bag of Joe for a Joe
A: GREEN BEANS COFFEE COMPANY is headquartered in Larkspur, California. Our company, in business since 1996, owns and operates 70+ cafes in North America and at military bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Djibouti East Africa, Oman, and United Arab Emirates.
Many of our cafes are positioned at forward operating bases in Afghanistan and Iraq where extreme danger is ever present and amenities are few. We strive to provide a refuge of peace and tranquility where our Troops can relax, enjoy premium coffees, teas and fresh-baked pastries, and for at least a few minutes, get a little feeling of home while escaping the everyday stress of their environment.
Our heritage of supporting those that put their lives at stake for our country is firmly rooted, non-negotiable and extends to our continuing commitment of donating a portion of every one of our daily transactions to charities that care for military families and children of the fallen.
To learn more about Green Beans Coffee and to see a timeline of our Company's history and significant events, click here.
You can find a full list of Green Beans cafe locations here.
A: Since early 2009, Cup Of Joe For A Joe has been a wonderful way for Americans everywhere to say thanks to our Troops and let them know they're appreciated through the simple act of buying a cup of freshly brewed coffee, writing a personal letter of encouragement to go with it and having both delivered into the hands of a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Coast Guardsman who is serving far from home.
The Cup Of Joe letters you send from home are delivered to our Troops by email and the freshly brewed cups of coffee are served at Green Beans Coffee cafes on the bases where they're deployed.
When the Troops receive your Cup of Joe and letter from home, Green Beans gives them a way to write back, say thanks and let you know how they're doing. We deliver their letters to you via email.
A: The whole idea behind Cup Of Joe For A Joe is to give folks here at home an opportunity to send a Cup of Joe (Troops call them a COJ) and a letter of thanks to a Soldier, Airman, Sailor, Marine or Coast Guardsman overseas. Because the person here at home who sends the COJ and the Service Member who receives it are matched on a completely random basis, you don't have to personally know anyone who is serving overseas in order to send a Cup Of Joe.
Troops deployed overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) or Operation New Dawn (Iraq) sign up to participate in Cup Of Joe For A Joe by enrolling on our Green Beans Coffee website or at the Green Beans cafe on their base.
When we receive contributions from people here at home we use a process to randomly assign the COJ gifts to the Troops. We send them an email notice telling them that they have received a Cup Of Joe from you and we include the letter you wrote. We then give the Service Member an opportunity to write back to you and register their COJ for pick up at the Green Beans cafe on their base. All they need do to pick up your gift is stop by the cafe and present the COJ award code to the staff.
Sending a Cup Of Joe is easy, takes just a few moments, and at only $2 costs about the same as the spare change in your pocket. You can participate in Cup of Joe here.
NOTE: Some ad blockers have been known to interfere with COJ contributions. If difficulty is encountered during checkout, please try turning off the ad blocker. If you need additional assistance, please contact us at info@greenbeanscoffee.net.
A: The COJ gifts are randomly distributed to the Service Members who sign up to participate in Cup Of Joe For A Joe. We have many thousands of deployed Troops who are enrolled to participate at or near bases in countries where we have a Green Beans cafe: Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan, Djibouti, Oman, and United Arab Emirates.
The Cup Of Joe program uses a complex computer algorithm to distribute the COJs and it's designed to spread out the Cup Of Joe gifts to as many Troops in as many countries as possible. Our goal is to get a COJ out to every Service Member who signs up.
A: Because of the random nature of the Cup of Joe program, where your gift is assigned on a random basis to a deployed Soldier, Airman, Marine, Sailor or Coast Guardsman, there is NOT A WAY to specify who will receive your Cup of Joe gift.
However, if you know a specific Service Member and would like to send them a gift, you can give them a Green Beans COFFEE CARD (like a gift certificate).
You can order a Coffee Card online at our website and we will deliver it to your recipient at the Green Beans cafe at his/her base. Generally, the Coffee Cards are ready for pick-up by your recipient within a few hours of when you place your order and we give you the option to include a gift message or letter (just like with Cup of Joe) when you purchase your Coffee Card.
To send a Coffee Card, you will need to order online at our website, provide your recipient's email address and also designate the base where they are deployed.
All of the details for how to order a Green Beans Coffee Card are here.
A: When you contribute to Cup Of Joe For A Joe, there's a small check box next to where you write your letter that will accompany your coffee, which asks if we may include your email address to the Service Member(s) who receive your gift(s). Leaving the box checked means when we deliver your letter, we'll include your email address, indicate that you're willing to be a pen pal and ask the Cup Of Joe recipient if they would like to be a pen pal as well. If they opt to do so, we'll send their email address back to you so that you can begin your correspondence directly with the Soldier, Airman, Marine, Sailor or Coast Guardsman who received your gift. Of course, deciding whether to participate as a pen pal is entirely up to you and if you choose not to, simply uncheck the box. Regardless of your status as a prospective pen pal, you'll still receive all of the notes from the Troops who choose to write a note back to you when they receive your Cup of Joe gift. We'll pass all of these to you through our secure email servers.
Currently, this is the only way we can facilitate 1:1 communication between folks here at home and our deployed Troops. At some point in the future, we may develop a pen-pal database with email addresses of Troops who would like to correspond. Please check back on the Cup Of Joe page on our website and our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cupofjoeforajoe for updates.
A: Yes! When the Troops receive a COJ they can use it to receive a cup of coffee or tea (hot or iced), or as a credit against anything that is offered in the Green Beans Coffee cafes. We also serve specialty beverages, smoothies, frappes, and frozen drinks, fresh-baked muffins and pastries. Each Cup Of Joe is valued at $2.
A: After you purchase your COJs we send the Troops an email along with your letter from home letting them know that your COJ gift is waiting for them. Sometimes it only takes a day or so for them to receive the COJ and respond to your message, sometimes longer, especially if they are out on a mission. Since we deliver the coffee to Troops out in the combat zones, sometimes it can take a while for them to get a chance to receive your email message and pick up their COJ.
When we send the Cup Of Joe gifts to the Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, Sailors and Coast Guardsman, we may split your COJs into groups of gifts that are sent on separate days which means the responses you receive back from the Troops can occur over a period of a several days or a few weeks.
To ensure that all of the COJ gifts you send are indeed distributed to the Troops, we perform an audit every 30 days. If we see at the end of 30 days from when you contributed that for whatever reason, one or more of your COJs haven't been picked up, we will prioritize delivery of any remaining Cup Of Joes to ensure that all of your gifts make it to the Troops.
A: Not every recipient who receives a Cup of Joe will respond back with a personal note but the good news is that most do! Regardless of whether your COJ recipient responds, or has the time to do so personally, we will always send you an email each time one of your Cup of Joes is delivered and we'll also tell you where the Troop who received your gift is deployed.
To ensure delivery of the Troops' letters to your email in-box, we suggest that you add Green Beans Coffee (coj.orders@greenbeanscoffee.net) to your email address book or white list.
If you're not sure how to add Green Beans Coffee to your email address book, we've prepared an easy-to-follow set of instructions. Just click here.
A: Each Cup of Joe is valued at $2. Therefore, every $2 contribution provides a Cup of Joe to a different Service Member. For example, if you contribute $10 to Cup of Joe, you will send a COJ to five different Troops. Each Troop will also receive the letter you write and additionally, we'll give each of them a way to write back to you.
A: We are working on making this functionality available and hope to have it available in the near future. Please check back on the Cup Of Joe page on our website or on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cupofjoeforajoe ; we'll post an announcement as soon as it's ready.
A: Check out the Cup Of Joe Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cupofjoeforajoe and become a FAN. As a fan you'll be able to join the conversation and post comments on the wall as well as respond to other comments being posted. We need YOUR help to spread the word about Cup Of Joe For A Joe so tell your friends and family about us and invite them to become FANS on Facebook.
Also, consider contributing to Cup Of Joe For A Joe again! For every one of our daily transactions online and across all Green Beans locations, we donate a portion to charities that care for military families and children of the fallen. Check them out here: Snowball Express: www.snowballexpress.org, and Children Of The Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund: www.cfsrf.org
A: Yes! Green Beans Coffee operates cafes on or near several military bases here at home and we continue to expand and open new locations. You can find a full list of Green Beans cafe locations here.
A: If you're able to travel to one of the bases here at home where we have a Green Beans cafe, we'd love to serve you! A list of all Green Beans cafe locations can be found here.
You can also visit our online store and purchase our premium coffees, teas and other great merchandise. If you’d like to save 15% and receive FREE shipping on all of your orders, check out our Subscribe & Save option with Amazon.
And remember, Green Beans contributes a portion of every transactions online and across all Green Beans locations to charities that care for our military families and children of the fallen.
A: Sending a Cup of Joe and letter of thanks to a deployed Service Member overseas is easy and DOES NOT require you to signup on our website to do so. The only participants of the Cup Of Joe program who are required to signup are the Troops who will be receiving your COJ gifts.
If you accidently sign yourself up as a Troop please let us know by emailing us at cupofjoe@greenbeanscoffee.net.
To send a Cup of Joe to our JOES and JANES click here, and follow the three easy steps!
A: The Cup Of Joe purchases you make to support our Troops are considered a contribution vs. a donation and as Green Beans Coffee Company is not a tax exempt organization they are not deductible for tax purposes.
A: We often hear from groups and organizations that would like to say thanks to our Troops by purchasing them a cup of freshly brewed coffee and having it delivered with a letter from home. Making a group contribution to the Cup Of Joe For A Joe program is easy and we offer a few suggestions for doing so.
First, we suggest designating one person in your organization to be the group leader. This person will be in charge of collecting the funds from the group members, placing the order online with a credit card, indicating one email address on the order where the Troops can send their thank you messages and finally, distributing these messages to their group members.
Most groups, especially larger ones, choose to include one message from the group as a whole that will accompany their COJs. If there are members of your group that would like to include their own individual messages then we suggest creating a word document where they can type all of their messages. The contents of the word document can be cut and pasted into the message box on the Cup Of Joe order form. The good news is that there is no character limit on the message length.
When the Service Members receive your COJs they are given the opportunity to respond back to your group's message(s). Since the Troops' thank you messages will only be sent to the email address that is designated on the order we suggest keeping a list of your group member's email addresses so that the group leader can distribute these messages to the rest of the group.
Your group can participate in Cup of Joe here.
A: Yes! Checks can be made out to GREEN BEANS COFFEE COMPANY and mailed to our Corporate Office for processing. Once your check is received, your contribution will be entered into the system. Along with your check you MUST include your email address. When the Troops receive your COJ gifts they are given the chance to respond back with a personal note. Their messages and the notifications from Green Beans regarding your COJs are delivered to your email in-box. To ensure delivery of the Troops' letters to your email in-box, we suggest that you add Green Beans Coffee (coj.orders@greenbeanscoffee.com) to your email address book or white list.
Checks can be mailed to the following address:
Green Beans Coffee Company
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 281
Larkspur, CA 94939
A: You can only respond to the Troops that receive your COJs if their email address is provided in the email notification you receive from Green Beans Coffee. When the Troops receive your COJs, they’re asked if they would like to be a pen-pal. If they opt-in, their email address is sent back to you along with their message. At that point you are able to begin direct correspondence with the deployed Service Member. However, if they DO NOT opt-in to becoming a pen-pal then their email address will NOT be included with their message and there is NOT A WAY to write back to them.
A: Bag Of Joe For A Joe is a NEW way for people everywhere to say thanks to our deployed Troops and let them know they're appreciated by purchasing a bag of freshly roasted coffee and having it delivered into the hands of a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Coast Guardsman who is serving on the front lines overseas where conditions are harsh, unforgiving and extremely dangerous.
The recipients of your Bag of Joe gifts are located in uninhabited areas and do not have access to a Green Beans café. We've partnered with deployed Chaplains and who are embedded with our Troops in these remote places as well as Platoon Leaders to deliver your Bag of Joe gifts.
Each Bag of Joe purchase also includes 3 Cup of Joe gifts that will be randomly distributed to Troops who serve at bases overseas where we have a Green Beans café. You get to include a letter to your Cup of Joe recipients and we'll give them a way to write back to you.
When we deliver your Bag of Joe gift, we'll send you an email newsletter with updates about the Bag Of Joe For A Joe program.
A: The idea behind Bag Of Joe For A Joe is to give people here at home an opportunity to send a Bag of Joe (BOJ) to a Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman or Coast Guardsman deployed overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and who is serving on the front lines. Because the bags of coffee are handed out to our Troops in a completely random fashion, you don't have to personally know anyone who is serving overseas in order to send a Bag of Joe.
When we receive contributions from people here at home, we ship your gift of freshly roasted coffee by APO to deployed Chaplains and Platoon Leaders with whom we've partnered overseas who will in turn distribute it to Troops serving in harm's way. You will receive an email notification from Green Beans Coffee letting you know when your Bag of Joe has been shipped.
When we deliver your Bag of Joe gift, we'll send you an email newsletter with updates about the Bag Of Joe For A Joe program.
Each $16 Bag of Joe purchase also includes 3 Cup of Joe gifts that will be randomly distributed to Troops who serve at bases overseas where we have a Green Beans café. You get to include a letter to your Cup of Joe recipients and we'll give them a way to write back to you.
A: The recipients of your Bag of Joe gifts are Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen or Coast Guardsmen deployed overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom who are serving on the front lines where conditions are harsh and often dangerous. They do not have access to a Green Beans café and have very few comforts of home; many are living in tents with not much more than a bug net and a cot.
Green Beans Coffee has partnered with deployed Chaplains who are embedded with the Troops as well as Platoon Leaders in order to randomly distribute your Bag of Joe gifts. The Chaplains hand out BOJs to Troops at their bases or to those whom they may encounter while out on a mission.
NOTE: The 3 Cup of Joe gifts that accompany each Bag of Joe you send are randomly distributed among the Troops who serve at bases overseas where we have a Green Beans café.
A: The Troops who receive your Bag of Joe gifts are deployed to the most dangerous and remote places overseas where there are very few comforts, if any. Internet access is limited or in some cases unavailable. There is not a way for the BOJ recipients to send a response back to you. However, any messages or photos that our Troops would like to convey to the people back home are given to the Chaplains and Platoon Leaders and communicated back to Green Beans. This feedback from the Troops will be included in the email newsletter we send to you along with updates about the Bag of Joe For A Joe program.
NOTE: Each Bag of Joe purchase includes 3 Cup of Joe gifts which are randomly distributed to Troops who serve at bases overseas where we have a Green Beans café. You get to include a letter to your Cup of Joe recipients and we'll give them a way to write back to you. Their messages are delivered to your email inbox.
You will receive an email notification from Green Beans Coffee letting you know when your Bag of Joe has been shipped. Additionally, when we deliver your gift, we'll send you an email newsletter with updates about the Bag of Joe For A Joe program.
A: Each Bag of Joe purchase includes 3 Cup of Joe gifts. Therefore, a single ($16) contribution provides a 12oz bag of premium ground coffee to one Service Member and a freshly brewed Cup of Joe to three different Service Members.
A: Green Beans Coffee can assist companies or groups who want to express their support for our Troops with the purchase of Bag of Joe gifts in bulk. Please send your inquiry to info@greenbeanscoffee.net or feel free to contact us by phone at (415) 461-4023.