Good News: Chicago-based Tiesta Tea hoping to deliver 3,000 'warmth kits' to homeless shelters

CHICAGO - A Chicago-based company that keeps its customers cozy all winter long is celebrating a milestone. For the past eight years, they’ve provided that warm, fuzzy feeling to the less fortunate as well.   

"It kind of hit us: What can we do to help warm these people up in Chicago," said Patrick Tannous, the President of Tiesta Tea. 

Tiesta has worked with employees to assemble thousands of warmth kits, containing new warm clothing, hygiene products, food and of course, tea. They hand-deliver the kits to Chicago homeless shelters on the third Thursday of January each year, during their "Spread the Warmth" campaign.  

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"I was at a shelter last year during COVID.  I went in by myself and people were just blown away, giving me hugs, kisses, just thanking me in English and Polish and Spanish and Russian," said Tiesta Tea CEO Dan Kline. 

"One of the ladies told Dan that he was a blessing from God in Spanish. And when Dan came back and shared that message with the team, it makes what we're doing super purposeful," added Tannous.  

This year they have doubled their annual goal, with hopes of handing out 3,000 kits thanks to generous donations from Hanes, Bombas and the community.  

"If we could have everybody in the city do [it] a once a year, the city's already amazing, it would be a lot more amazing. And it's really just to help the community around us," said Tannous.  

If you’d like to "Spread the Warmth," Tiesta Tea has a GoFundMe page.  Every penny will be used for the warmth kits.

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