Interview with Jason Patton
Photos courtesy of Fire Department Coffee

Jason Patton, vice president of Fire Department Coffee and star of the Fire Department Chronicles video series, discusses his company’s passion for delicious, handcrafted coffee and supporting first responders.

How did Fire Department Coffee come about?
Luke Schneider, our CEO, was a shipboard firefighter in the navy, where he fell in love with coffee. After his service ended, he met his future wife, Kate, at a café, and they bonded over the drink. They began experimenting with roasting and started Fire Department Coffee in Rockford, Illinois, in 2016.

What kinds of coffee do you offer?
We have a host of light, medium, and dark roasts and espressos as well as a spirit-infused line that’s incredibly popular. We also offer ready-to-drink and single-serve options. Plus, each month, subscribers to our Coffee of the Month Club get to try different single-origin blends from Africa, India, or South America; through the club, we give back a portion of sales to the farmers in those areas. Tell us about how your company helps firefighters: Luke and I, being in fire service, know what happens when one of our own is injured, gets sick, or has a mental health issue— a lot of times, there’s no one there to help them pay bills as they recover. To support them, we started the Fire Department Coffee Charitable Foundation. Through it, we give a portion of the proceeds from Fire Department Coffee to organizations that specifically collect and distribute funds for such situations.

As far as fire departments, our Fire Department Shirt Club and Fire Department Coffee Club subscriptions allow us to support individual FDs by selling products with their customized branding. We go to local fire departments, find something that represents them well, create their shirts and coffees, and return a percentage of the sales directly to them. For example, we were able to send $14,000 to a fire department in Hawaii to help those who lost their homes during the 2023 Maui fires.

You sell FDC gear, stickers, and other merchandise as well. What was the impetus for it?
In addition to making high-quality coffee products for an affordable price, we wanted to be a lifestyle brand that people could emotionally connect with; that’s also why we’ve leaned so much into social media videos. We want people to wear our gear and feel good about it because of what it represents.

What’s the inspiration behind those videos?
How do you balance humor with purpose? In 2015, I created Fire Department Chronicles as a way to share a firefighter’s life through humor. After I began working here, we started doing similar videos as a team and quickly realized that emotional connections to brands are what really drive them—there’s a difference between somebody being aware of your brand and supporting it relentlessly. But we wanted to provide something more to people: daily humor. So we created the FDC videos, hoping to help people laugh for a few minutes.

They’ve been monstrously successful. Firefighters, paramedics, and first responders immediately related to them, of course, but so many others did as well. And, as you said, they’re not just for laughs. There’s a small piece of educational information behind each one.

Fire Department Coffee is veteran owned and made in America. What does that mean to the company?
Many veterans have it difficult. They spend long periods of time serving our country and often reenter society with few opportunities to excel outside of being firefighters or police officers. It was important, especially to Luke, to support those who give up so much for our country. That’s why we created our Shellback Espresso: as an homage to anyone who becomes a shellback in the navy.

Made in the USA is extremely important to us too. It means forgoing the cheaper way of manufacturing overseas to not only provide top-notch products but also employ people in places like Rockford, South Carolina, and Texas.

How has the company’s foray into retail gone?
We opened a small local storefront at the end of 2023 so people could visit us and buy products. But getting into Walmart in 2022 was a whole different beast. By June of 2023, we were in 1,000 stores, and last year we were in 10,000. We expect to be in 15,000 stores by the end of 2025.

What has the response been to your coffee and mission?
Overwhelmingly positive. The number one reason people purchase our coffee is that it tastes incredible. We could come out with the coolest videos and have the best giveback mission, but if the coffee doesn’t taste amazing, no one’s going to buy it again. That’s why we’re so passionate about it.

And, as mentioned earlier, people love the videos simply because they brighten their days and teach them something. That’s such a cool thing because education and comedy should be synonymous, especially since humor helps us retain information better. So people will remember not only what they learned but also that by supporting us, they’re helping to give back to those who put their lives and health on the line every day.

For more info, visit firedeptcoffee.com