Nick Murto was inspired by shoes. Well, specifically, the book Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, the guy who founded TOMS shoes company. Murto, the owner of downtown Spokane’s Method Juice Cafe, was inspired by TOMS’ “one-for-one” philosophy. For every pair of shoes sold, the company donates a pair to a child in need.
Murto wanted to do that here — but how do you do good with cups of organic juice?
In the planning stage of Method, he’d also been kicking around an idea for selling and marketing his own “super oats” — an oatmeal blend that he’d made popular around his office.
Once he opened Method, Murto realized that he could finally sell his signature oats — and do some good for the community at the same time. This week, the cafe started selling what it calls Good Oats ($3). They’re a lot like the durable cup of oats you can buy at Starbucks, but Method’s Good Oats are all organic. It’s a simple-but-toothsome blend of oats, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon and maple syrup crystals.
For every cup of Good Oats the cafe sells, one is donated to Second Harvest, a local food bank and nonprofit that runs several initiatives for those in need. One of those, a program called the school pantry program, which started in 2011 and sends 900 12- and 15-pound boxes of food home to kids at local schools each month. Those boxes contain non-perishable, shelf-stable items: things like spaghetti, soups and produce like apples, that will stay fresh for weeks.
Rod Wieber, chief resource officer for Second Harvest, says he was approached by Murto about a year ago and quickly realized the Good Oats cups would be a great addition to the boxes.
Good Oats are the latest addition to the juice cafe’s breakfast menu, which also includes chia seed pudding ($3) and acai berry parfaits ($6). But the oats, which are hand mixed by Murto and his staff, are the only items that encompass that “buy one, give one” philosophy.
And they’re the first project of the cafe that Murto hopes will be “way bigger than Spokane.”
Method Juice Cafe • 718 W. Riverside Ave. • methodjuicecafe.com • 473-9579
