FORT WORTH, Texas - A Fort Worth pastor pushing to change outcomes for many in south Fort Worth is hoping to give people a second chance by showing them that if they can deal in drugs, they can deal in coffee.
And Texas A&M University agrees.
Mt. Rose Church Pastor Kyev Tatum calls it "Same grams, different grind."
"When drugs come into Fort Worth, it comes into this short side, the southside, so it goes from the southside throughout all of Fort Worth," Tatum said.
He's hoping to have something else flow from south Fort Worth to across the city.
"I got with Texas A&M Center for Coffee Research and I saw what they were doing in international cities and I told them, ‘Listen, we need to stimulate the economy in inner cities. Can we use coffee?’ They said yes you can," Tatum said. "Same grams, different grind."
Johnny Wallace, who knows the street game, is all in
"I've been involved in grams for many years, so meeting pastor and becoming a new thinker, we want to get this stuff over into this area," Wallace said.
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Tatum's childhood home, known as the prayer room, will become the prayer room coffee house as part of a five-year co-op with A&M.
"Their job is to come in and help us develop to provide the technical support," Tatum said.
"The historical house part here, we're going to keep original with all the original things that are in it, like the fireplace here and all, and then we are going to do a two-story add on in the back that will have dorm rooms and a specialty coffee kitchen," project organizer Bobby Bullard explained.
[REPORTER: "Who’s funding this?"]
"The lord so far. He's the only one. We're looking for investors because this was an idea whose time has come," Tatum said.
"It can work. With help, all things are possible," Wallace added.
It's Pastor Tatum's vision, but with corroboration from the Texas A&M Center for Coffee Research, the prayer room can be transformed into a power room, not just brewing coffee, but brewing new lives.