Coffee cups with small Ukrainian flags can be seen coming out of the Soap Co. Coffee House in downtown Jacksonville.
Soap Co. Manager Abbi Kafer says that the mobile app Odeko, which they use for online ordering, sent the flags to show support while helping to raise donations. “They sent us little decals and invited us to support Ukraine with them. So the more you order on the Odeko app, the higher donation they will be able to give.”
A portion from each sale through the Odeko app will go to the World Central Kitchen, which is an organization that sends not only food but cooks to provide meals to areas of the world in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
Through its Chefs for Ukraine relief effort, World Central Kitchen has already provided more than one million meals in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Hungary.
Nicole Riley who owns the Soap Co. Coffee House says they didn’t know about the program until a bulging packet full of Ukrainian flag stickers arrived with the invitation to participate from Odeko.
Kafer says Odecko is a supporter of all things coffee and helping other small businesses. “They are a small business that built an app to help small cafes be able to do ordering online without some big spending themselves”
Riley says Odeko has always been very good to the coffee houses over the years Soap Co. has been involved with the app, to the point of even sending a large bonus at Christmas to split between staff members, throw a holiday party, or what have you. She says to see them supporting relief efforts for Ukraine is not surprising.
To donate to the World Central Kitchen Chefs for Ukraine relief effort, download the Odeko mobile app from Google Play or the Apple App Store and place an order through the app for pick up. Then when you pick up your order you can pick up one of the flag stickers to put on your coffee cup to show your support.