Kansas City brewery donates 30% of sales to immigrant charity in Minnesota
By Alan Shope
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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KMBC) — A local brewery turned an ordinary Wednesday night into an opportunity to help others, donating a portion of its sales to support immigrants affected by events in Minnesota.
At Strange Days Brewery, 30% of all sales were donated to the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund, a charity created by the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
“It’s one of my favorite breweries,” customer Liz Darby said.
Darby said she regularly stops by for the beer.
“They’re hazy IPAs, and it’s delicious,” she said.
But Wednesday night gave her another reason to visit.
“I like supporting people from far away, doing our part,” Darby said.
The one-night promotion was organized by brewery co-owner Trevor Schlam, who said the idea came together quickly as he looked for a way to respond to ongoing events in Minneapolis.
“We just try to do anything we can,” Schlam said. “We’re just really kind of disturbed by what’s going on out there.”
In addition to in-person donations, the brewery also collected contributions online.
“What’s happening there is terrible, tough to internalize,” Schlam said.
Schlam said there was no specific fundraising goal, explaining that the effort was just as much about raising awareness as it was about collecting money.
“We don’t want that coming here. We don’t want that affecting anyone else,” he said. “You know, figure out how to heal from there.”
Schlam said most of the feedback from customers has been positive, even when opinions differed.
“We let them voice their opinions, because that’s also important, that everyone has a say,” he said. “It wasn’t anything mean-spirited, truly.”
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