← all drafts ✏️ Edit in Google Docs ↗

Refuge Coffee Co. — Cold Outreach

Target: Refuge Coffee Co. (Clarkston, GA)

Tier: C — community / long-game

Channel: WEB — info@refugecoffeeco.com (to Kitti Murray, Founder & CEO)

Contact: Kitti Murray — Founder & CEO (Kathryn "Kitti" Smith Murray)

Email: info@refugecoffeeco.com

Built: 2026-05-26

Context

Refuge Coffee has been operating in Clarkston since 2015 — Clarkston being one of the most concentrated refugee resettlement areas in the country (60+ languages in one square mile). The model isn't "we hired a few refugees to feel good about it." Trainees go through 12–18 months of paid on-the-job training — barista skills, professional norms, English support, career planning — and the goal is placement in step-up employment after they complete the program. Ahmed Alzoukani, a Syrian refugee who trained there, now runs Mint Coffeehouse in Tucker. That's the whole thesis: Refuge isn't a charity giving people coffee jobs, it's a launchpad.

They just hit their 10-year mark in May 2025 and opened at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown. Growing, but the story is still rooted in Clarkston.

The angle for GCV: this is exactly the kind of work where video is the difference between "mission-driven coffeehouse" as a concept and someone actually feeling it. The human subjects are specific and real — not "a refugee" but Ahmed, who now runs his own shop. The gap is usually that organizations like this tell the story in text (website copy, grant reports) but don't have video that makes a new visitor understand in 90 seconds what they walked into.

Relevant GCV work if they reply: Ghost Coast Video documents people and organizations doing real work in Atlanta. The NSFW podcast and community event work are the closest analogues — subjects with something to say, not just B-roll of a space.

Named contact: Kitti Murray is the founder and public face. She's done Voyage ATL and AJC interviews recently. She's accessible and clearly used to media attention. Outreach to her directly is appropriate.

Email

Subject: The Clarkston story

Kitti —

A Refuge graduate running his own shop in Tucker — Ahmed Alzoukani at Mint Coffeehouse — is the kind of outcome that's hard to explain with a tagline. Ten years in, that's the story.

I'm a video producer in Atlanta — Ghost Coast Video. I work with organizations and venues that have real stories to tell, and Refuge is exactly the kind of operation where I think video makes a real difference. Not a brand reel. More like a 90-second thing that takes someone from "oh, a coffee shop that helps refugees" to actually getting what 12 months of training in Clarkston means.

If it'd be useful, I'm happy to start with something free — we figure out a format that works for you, I shoot it, you own it. No pitch attached, just want to see if there's something worth making.

— Brandyn

ghostcoast.video

Before sending

1. Word count: 147 words. Under 200, good.

2. Verify contact email. info@refugecoffeeco.com routes to general inquiries — consider addressing to Kitti directly in the body (done) and noting "for Kitti" in the subject if sending to the general inbox. Or research whether she has a direct email listed.

3. Ahmed/Mint Coffeehouse — VERIFIED 2026-05-26. Ahmed Alzoukani is real and well-documented: Syrian refugee, arrived 2015, trained at Refuge ~5 years up to GM, now runs Mint Coffeehouse in Tucker. Sources: AJC ("Mint Coffeehouse brings a taste of Syrian culture to Tucker"), Decaturish (Aug 2024 opening), mintcoffeehouse.com. NOTE: Mint opened Aug 2024, not recently — opener was reworded so it doesn't imply fresh news.

4. Woodruff location hook. If Brandyn has visited the Woodruff Arts Center recently or has any connection there, a one-sentence reference lands harder. Drop it if not — the Ahmed reference is the better specific.

5. Tone check. The offer of a free shoot is real — don't send this if that's not something Brandyn's actually prepared to do. The note is written as if it is.

Status log