Nossa Familia's Coronavirus COVID-19 Response: Personal Cup Handling Changes & More Info

Nossa Familia's Coronavirus COVID-19 Response: Personal Cup Handling Changes & More Info


Update: Monday, March 23, 2020



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To our Nossa Family -
It is with a heavy heart that we must say the time has come for us to close our Portland shops for a while. We don’t know yet when we’ll be back, but we can’t wait to welcome you in when we do.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 24, our three Portland shops will open from 8am-12:30pm and offering 25% off all drinks, food, and beans in order to minimize our waste. If you feel well and comfortable, we’d love to see you.

Starting Wednesday, all of our shops are closed until further notice. We look forward to the day when we can re-open and share coffee, conversation, and community with you once again. Until then — stay home, safe safe, and stay healthy.

Lots of love,
Augusto & the Nossa crew

P.S. Our roastery, wholesale and online order fulfillment operation will remain open. We look forward to continuing to keep your shelves stocked with fresh beans from our online store and grocery partners - New Seasons Market, Zupan's Markets, Market of Choice, Green Zebra Grocery, Whole Foods, Alberta Co-Op, Food Front Co-Op, & Sheridan Fruit Co.


Update: Saturday, March 21, 2020

We want to thank you for your support and generosity during these difficult times. We are heartened by the effort to support our business and employees. We are keeping a close eye on Oregon and Portland directives to shelter in place. For now, all Portland cafés are operating under a reduced-hours, to-go only program. Following Los Angeles & California’s shelter-in-place rules, our CalEdison DTLA espresso bar will be closed for the foreseeable future. We are working with our staff to determine the the best possible outcomes at this time during the shrinkage of business.

Updated Café hours:

  • CalEdison DTLA will be closed until further notice

  • Portland shops are open for to-go orders from 8am-12:30pm

  • Central Eastside shop is now closed on weekends

This has been a hard time for everyone, especially our staff. Here are the best ways to support right now:

  1. Come by and tip generously only if you feel safe and 100% well.

  2. Purchase gift cards and place online orders at nossacoffee.com.

  3. Send virtual tips to service industry workers at pdxtipjar.com.

  4. Support efforts to provide economic assistance to the most-affected workers & small businesses before bailouts to big corporations.

Our roastery remains open and we would love to fill your online orders at nossacoffee.com. We are currently offering free shipping on all orders with code LUCKYME, and have started to offer free online order delivery to Portland addresses - see below for more details.

Thanks again for the support, and take care.


UPDATE: Wednesday, March 17, 2020

Friends, we hope this message finds you in good health and spirits. The past few days have been very tough for all of us, and it's likely that even tougher days lie ahead. We want you to know that we're here, we're strong, and we are doing everything we can to support our staff. For the time being, all of our cafés remain open for to-go service only.

We will maintain our strict enhanced sanitation protocols inside all of our locations. Personal cups can still to be used with the same program we've been using for the past week to cut back on waste. For the time being, our to-go cup upcharge will be waived. Seating will not be available, and we will be limiting the number of customers in the shops to ensure recommended social distancing. Food items and menus may be limited and everything will be made to-go.

We have revised our café hours. For today, Wednesday, March 18:

  • CalEdison DTLA: 8am-12:30pm

  • Central Eastside: 7am-3pm

  • Pearl District & Seven Corners: 7am-4pm

Starting Thursday, March 19:
Until further notice and the situation improves, all of our cafés will be open 8am-12:30pm

We are listening and working with our staff to come up with the best possible outcomes for them at this difficult time. We are not asking anyone to work who does not want to work or feels uncomfortable doing so. All Nossa employees are given PTO and we have implemented an emergency PTO policy to assist employees in extenuating circumstances. If you do come by, consider tipping more than usual to show our staff the love.

Our roastery remains open and we would love to fill your online orders. We are currently offering free shipping on all orders - use code LUCKYME at nossacoffee.com.

Stay safe and strong out there, everyone. Social distancing does not mean community isolation. Reach out to your community - we need to support each other now more than ever.

❤️Augusto & the Nossa fam


UPDATE: MOnday, MARCH 16, 2020

Friends,

We plan to open our cafés tomorrow for limited hours, and we will move to to-go only service as directed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti.

We will maintain our strict enhanced sanitation protocols inside all of our locations. Personal cups can still to be used with the same program we've been using to cut back on waste. For the time being, our to-go cup upcharge will be waived. Seating will not be available, and we will be limiting the number of customers in the shops to ensure recommended social distancing. Food items and menus may be limited and everything will be made to-go.

We are listening and working with our staff to come up with the best possible outcomes for them at this difficult time. Rest assured we are not asking anyone to work who does not want to work. All Nossa employees are given PTO and we have implemented an emergency PTO policy to assist employees in extenuating circumstances.

Our revised café hours:

Tuesday, March 17:

  • CalEdison DTLA: 8am-2pm

  • Central Eastside: 7am-5pm

  • Seven Corners: 7am-4pm

  • Pearl District: 6:30am-5pm

Wednesday, March 18

  • CalEdison DTLA: 8am-12:30pm

  • Central Eastside: 7am-5pm

  • Seven Corners & Pearl District: 7am-4pm


UPDATE: Sunday, MARCH 15, 2020

Friends and Community: This is a tough time for small businesses like ours weighing their options. At this point we have made the decision to stay open for normal hours, for as long as we feel we can adequately provide a safe working and café environment that does not contribute to the spread of the virus. We are stocking up our cafes with 12oz bags and encourage you to get your beans for home as this situation is evolving quickly.

On top of precautions we’ve taken like more frequent hand washing, surface sanitation, and personal cup handling changes, we are implementing these additional health & safety measures at our cafés:

  • Reducing seating in cafes to ensure safe social distancing.

  • Only baristas will touch our register iPads.

  • We strongly prefer credit card & contactless payment, but will maintain a cash option for accessibility.

Employees are instructed to wash hands after cash handling. Closing will be our last option in an array of measures we are taking to keep you and our staff safe. We are all working through this tough time and WILL get through it together. We remain committed to delivering you exceptional coffee and supporting our community in this time. For now, we are open, and we'll continue to adjust our operations as needed.

Thank you for your business, understanding and well-wishes.

In Community,
Augusto and the Nossa Familia family


Originally Posted March 11, 2020:

The health and safety of our staff and customers are always our top priority here at Nossa Familia. We follow rigorous company policies and food health & safety regulations in order to ensure we are serving the highest quality and safest possible product. In light of recent concerns about the coronavirus COVID-19, we would like to inform you about some extra measures we are taking to limit risk and exposure for anyone who interacts with our company.

Changes to Personal Mug Handling in Nossa Cafés



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Until further notice, our baristas will no longer be able to directly handle any personal mugs. However, we have several solutions to continue on the path toward having Zero Waste cafés, as we believe that high levels of both sanitation and sustainability are compatible.

  • We welcome you to continue to order your drink in one of our fully-sanitized reusable for-here mugs, as usual.

  • You may still bring in your personal mug, and we will continue to honor our regular 25-cent discount for bringing your own cup. Instead of making your drink directly into your cup, we will pour your drink into a special, separate container designed for easy pouring that can then be used to transfer to your own mug.

  • We can continue to dispense drip coffee into personal mugs by pouring directly from our server to your cup—we will take extra precautions not to cross-contaminate spouts and surfaces.

  • We will no longer be able to directly handle, clean, rinse or pre-heat personal mugs.

  • We will continue to have our Little Free Mug Libraries at our Portland cafés, where all available mugs are sanitized and ready to go for your drinks. These mugs will be treated as personal mugs following the above protocol.

  • GO Box cups are a great solution during this time, and we have them available at our Seven Corners café. We can make any drink directly into a clean GO Box Cup. Learn more about this reusable cup membership program and join today.



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Other measures we are taking company-wide:

Enhanced sanitation & handwashing: Nossa staff have been instructed to take great care in sanitizing surfaces thoroughly and often. They've been asked to wash their hands as if they've just cut up a jalapeños and now need to remove their contact lenses, and doing this frequently.

Paid sick leave for Nossa staff: All Nossa employees have paid time off and are encouraged to work from home when possible, or take sick leave if ill.

Revised cupping protocol: We are implementing the Specialty Coffee Association-approved revised cupping/tasting protocol at the Nossa Roastery for quality control purposes. All public tours & cuppings are suspended. Learn more about the SCA protocol here.

Limiting coronavirus stigma: We work hard to make our spaces safe and welcoming for all. We recognize that some of our community members have experienced racism and xenophobia due to misconceptions about the coronavirus. We are educating our staff about the dangerous stigma associated with coronavirus so that they can help with countering it.

What we're asking from you to help us with this:

  • If you do bring in a personal mug, please make sure it is clean and ready to go: we will no longer be able to handle your mug, which means no cleaning, rinsing, or pre-heating for you. Please, please help us out and don't ask the baristas to make exceptions. (sorry!)

  • Wash your hands frequently and follow health and sanitation best practices. If you're feeling sick, stay home or see a doctor.

  • Be patient with us and others as we implement these changes. If you have any concerns or questions about anything, please feel free to contact us or ask your barista or café manager.

  • Respect others’ personal space and boundaries.

  • We prefer credit card or contactless payment over cash.

  • If you feel uncomfortable for any reason, please say something. If you would like a surface wiped down for you or have concerns about the sanitation of anything in our cafes, feel free to let us know and we will do our best to take care of it.

  • Most of all - be kind and take care of yourself and each other!

We are grateful for your support and understanding as we work through this tough time together. We will always do our best to nurture safe, healthy and positive environments for our staff and customers. 


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