Joshua Veit and his son Levon Veit, 9, at Joshua’s workplace, iDrinkCoffee.com, in Milton, Ont.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
The organizer: Joshua and Levon Veit
The pitch: Launching Sweet Dee’s Coffee
The cause: Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital
On Christmas Eve, 2022, Deirdre Veit received devastating news from her doctors.
They’d found a mass in her abdomen that appeared to be a sarcoma; a cancerous tumour that develops in bone or soft tissue. Ms. Veit underwent weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, and then a mastectomy when the cancer spread to her breasts. She died nine months later, at the age of 33.
“The hardest part when you lose someone is the day-to-day routine,” said Ms. Veit’s husband, Joshua. “Like having a morning coffee with her.”
Coffee had always been point of connection for the couple. They met while working at Starbucks and went on to work at several cafés together. “Coffee was kind of always our thing,” recalled Mr. Veit, 36, who works at a coffee equipment and roasting company called iDrinkCoffee.com based in Milton, Ont. “We always roasted our own coffee at home, just as a fun hobby.”
Last June, the couple’s nine-year-old son, Levon, wanted to hold a bake sale to raise money for Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre where Ms. Veit had been treated. He and Mr. Veit had participated in the annual Walk to Conquer Cancer which raises money for the centre, and Levon was eager to raise more money. “I said, you know what would go well with a bake sale is coffee,” Mr. Veit said.
With help of relatives, the Veits opened a pop-up café in their driveway over the Fathers’ Day weekend and held a yard sale which raised around $7,000. The event gave Mr. Veit another idea.
He contacted some people at work about using the company’s roaster to brew up a blend in honour of Deirdre. The company agreed and donated 68 kilograms of beans. Mr. Veit paid for the packaging and launched Sweet Dee’s Coffee over the summer.
He sold out the batch of 170 bags within weeks and all of the proceeds — each bag cost $25 — went to Princess Margaret.
He’s reached out to other coffee roasters around Toronto to see if they will get involved in making more Sweet Dee’s. “I think that there’s potential to make this a bigger charitable effort.”
He’ll never forget the simple joy he and Deirdre shared making coffee together. “I can’t make it for her any more, but this is just a way to keep her part of it.”