Social Impact

EDUCATION + OPPORTUNITY

Saxbys^® is a social impact company, driven by hospitality and fueled by incredible food and drink. Our company’s mission, Make Life Better^®, is at the heart of all of our social impact and community outreach efforts, and it all begins with education and opportunity. 

After founding our first Experiential Learning Platform^® cafe in 2015 and witnessing our student team members flourish in the Platform, we had a lightbulb moment: access to education and the opportunities that an education can provide are where Saxbys can create sustainable change in the communities it serves. 

Education is at the core of what we do whether it be through the lens of our training, recruiting, or operations. We’re using all of our resources to educate and shape our team members through our various programs into more marketable, socially conscious, and entrepreneurial change-makers who will go on to become leaders in Philadelphia and beyond. 

We’ve made a commitment to providing opportunities for traditional students and under-resourced youth all the same, whether that be the team member who is living under the poverty line or was previously homeless, or the team member who never had to question his or her access to a good education. To us, investing in the city’s young talent in any capacity and investing in the city’s growth go hand-in-hand. By identifying someone’s transferable skills, acknowledging their hustle, and offering mentorship along the way, we know that we can provide an education and experience unlike any other - whether that be a track to a four year university or building their career directly out of high school. 

Our list of community partners is always growing and our social impact efforts continue to evolve with the current education landscape. If you’re interested in learning more about how to get involved or how to partner with us, please reach out here.

Additional Community Partnership Efforts

We work with our ongoing partners and community partners to help us match opportunity youth and non-traditional team members to jobs in cafes. We believe that in providing a work environment in which young people are thoroughly trained, consistently mentored, and offered developmental opportunities to grow personally and professionally - we are helping to shape the future success of Philadelphia and its residents. 

We use our cafes to host over 100 events a year to advocate and help fundraise for social change across education and opportunity in Philadelphia, but those efforts continue to grow as we do. In 2018, we were able to contribute over $40,000 across product, event, and labor donations alone for causes like college access, mentorship programs, and fundraising for Philadelphia public schools. 

We were also able to raise over $78,000 in Day of Giving events at our cafes that went to our Fellowship and Scholarship programs at the Community College of Philadelphia, Temple University, as well as The Basket food pantry on La Salle University’s campus and The Melton Arts and Ed Center in West Chester, PA.

Why Education and Opportunity?

Americans owe $1.5 trillion (and counting!) in student loan debt. Access to affordable and equitable education has never been more important. With wages for our student-run team, educational grants, fellowships, and more - Saxbys strives to be part of the solution in the communities it serves.

How We Do It

Paving Career Paths

Saxbys approaches success in business through the lens of Three Pillars — Team Development, Community Leadership and Financial Management. We aim to help young people foster the unique skill sets they need to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace and redefine the value of their educational path - whether that be a traditional route or not - in the process.

Transferable entrepreneurship and leadership skill sets

Knowing people are the greatest resource of every organization, we challenge our team members to actively develop their leadership skills, promote teamwork, and learn resilience and cultural agility - all through a lens of genuine hospitality. These are skills that will serve them well here and anywhere else they dream to go.

Best First Job

We take pride in implementing a servant leadership model across every Saxbys cafe, guided by our defining Three Pillars. Our leaders main job function? Make Life Better.  For our guests, for their team, and in turn, for themselves. We like to say working at Saxbys is the best first job because it’s chock full of mentorship from day one. Team members are gaining power skills they need to enact positive social impact while implementing both critical thinking and creativity to innovate and inspire. 

Simply put, doing good is good business.