Diggers Coffee Company announces Pro Patria as its sole charity beneficiary

Wagga and the Riverina’s first veterans’ coffee company will donate one dollar for every coffee bag sold to support Pro Patria Centre’s (PCC) mission to help veterans, first responders and their families.

Diggers Coffee Company (DCC) announced PCC as its sole charity beneficiary on Monday, 5 September, and its signature coffee, “Reveille”, is now served at Cafe Phoenix at the Homebase in Wagga.

DCC co-owner Harry Fitzgibbon told Region that every small step counts in supporting veterans.

“I’ve got mates that are doing it tough … had one of them sleeping on the streets three weeks ago,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

“He was in Sydney and called me at two in the morning at his wits’ end, and I transferred some money and got him into a motel.

“Another mate I served with picked him up, and we put him on a plane back to Brisbane and got him into hospital.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said his friend was one of the toughest people he had known and to hear of him being extremely vulnerable was sobering.

“I don’t know the answer at the moment,” said the veteran who served in the Australian Defence Force for nearly 10 years.

The co-owner of DCC said it was an important step for businesses to serve coffee to the local market, allowing the company to grow and increasing the support for PCC.

He said the local community had a place to grab a coffee and support the PCC and veterans.

Mr Fitzgibbon said PCC’s site and vision, coupled with the plan for what was to come, was inspirational.

“Whatever we can do to assist in this important work we realise we need to do as a business.”

Pro Patria Centre director and veteran Jason Frost is excited to have support from a local veteran-owned and led company.

“Diggers Coffee Company support means everyone who loves a coffee can support us,” Mr Frost said.

“Thank you to Harry, Nathan and everyone at Diggers Coffee Company. Your support will save lives.”

Cafe Phoenix owner Katherine McDonell, whose venue is the first to launch the DCC coffee, said it was encouraging to have a cafe that supported local veterans.

“Having a story behind the coffee is unique to Wagga, and we hope that by serving Diggers Coffee here, we can help to give back to local organisations such as the Pro Patria Centre and have a place for the local defence community and first-responder families to show their support as well,” Ms McDonell said.

Diggers Coffee Company hopes to expand throughout the Riverina with a cafe in every town serving Diggers Coffee, and have a local roaster set up to complement the busy local delivery service.

DCC co-owner Nathan Sheather said it was important for the coffee company to have a local roaster to hire local ex-service members and defence families.

“It is one of our goals, and we hope to have this operational in early 2023,” he said.

”It will allow us to do so much more for the Pro Patria Centre and the local community that has got behind them and give back to this community that has given us so much.”