About

So how did two social workers with no background in food service or business ownership end up owning a coffee and waffles food truck?  Well, is was definitely an adventure…

Jessica Leal is a mother of two, who graduated with a social work degree from OU, followed by a career in child welfare. Leal specifically has a passion for serving teens in care who are permanent custody.  Leal grew up in Texas and had a daily routine of waking up at 5:00am, working out, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and drinking coffee with her mother from the young age of 7.  Coffee was a common theme in Leal’s family and was always the setting for deep conversations, morning routines and beautiful memories.  While attending OU, Leal met a curly haired girl who would later become a great friend and business partner.

Rachel Smith is the true definition of a local, born and raised in Yukon, OK.  Smith briefly left Yukon to attend OU in Norman and obtain a degree in social work to later work in child welfare.  Smith was always involved in the Yukon community, attending church, Czech Fest, holiday in the park and any other event held in her hometown.  Smith was anti-coffee all the way up until college, at which point she learned the magic of a delicious cup of coffee while pulling all nighters studying and writing papers for her degree.  Since then, Smith developed a love for coffee shop culture and the unique stories of each person who comes in for a cup of coffee.

The Red Bird Coffee Cart can now be found rolling around Canadian County.  We serve at community events, festivals, teacher appreciation, churches and many other venues that we are asked to attend.  The Red Bird Coffee Cart started as a dream for a brick and mortar coffee shop that would be a hub for the Yukon community, but Smith and Leal quickly realized that with no knowledge of business or coffee, a coffee shop might be a bigger adventure than they were ready for.  After this realization the coffee cart was born.  Smith and Leal spent months studying coffee at various coffee shops who allowed them, traveling to multiple states collecting equipment for the coffee cart and experimenting with different recipes that our friends and families so kindly sampled.  We made it through fires, broken glasses, burned waffles and copious spills to finally become a business and a second home we are proud of. The Red Bird Coffee Cart has become a haven where mornings are spent exploring parts of the city never before seen and meeting new people at every event.  We proudly serve EOTE (Ends of the Earth) Coffee and are constantly inspired by the people we have met in the coffee community.  The Red Bird still has big dreams of growing and becoming an integral part of Yukon and we hope to serve each one of you someday!

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, will be to employ and mentor teens who are aging out of the foster care system.  Transitioning from teen to adult is difficult for everybody, but the hurtles for youth who do not have a stable adult in their lives can be catastrophic.  We hope to create an environment which serves as a safe space for our youth and customers, teaches customer service skills, partners youth with a stable adult in the career field of their choosing and is a haven to return to whenever they need a talk over a cup of coffee. There you have it. Stay tuned to see how the adventure unfolds.