In March of 2017, our neighborhood coffee shop opened to be just that. A coffee shop for our neighborhood. Understanding the nature of our city’s socio-economic fragmentation, we committed to ensure our coffee shop was accessible to all. Our Pay It Forward (PIF) program is our exploratory journey in small acts of generosity and kindness, while allowing for a safe space in our neighborhood for all.

We are now 3 years in, and our journey has taken us here; a dedicated web page seeking partners in generosity. We are publicly acknowledging that demand continues to grow for the PIF program, at a faster pace than we anticipated. To be clear, our customers continue to be fantastic in their support for this program, and in their support for us.

We want to open up more opportunities to be generous, not only to our regular or visiting customers, but also businesses and folks who seek to give back in positive and meaningful ways.

In the winter of 2018, we received several “Christmas gifts” in the form of checks, dedicated to purchasing PIF tokens. We were floored. Never did we imagine folks outside of our coffee shop, much less, our city, to be interested or vested in what we were doing here on the South/West side of Syracuse.

Thank you to our local news outlets who believe this idea is worth sharing!

Recurring Sponsorship

We came up with the “Recurring Sponsorship”, from our first “outside Syracuse” regular giver. Every month, we receive a check; every month we get to put up tokens, for the amount of that check, because of a one-time decision to pursue an act of kindness in the “season of giving”. So many thanks to you for the inspiring idea!

For recurring sponsorship, please consider setting up “Bill Pay” with your bank, and sending the check to: Salt City Coffee 509 W Onondaga St Syracuse NY 13204. Please write in the memo section: “Pay It Forward” or “PIF”.