DeKALB — A Just Brew is opening up shop on the main level of the Holmes Student Center today and will serve craft-brewed coffee to students on a budget.

Its mission is to serve quality coffee on campuses at donation-based prices. This means that if a customer can’t afford a cup of coffee, baristas will give it to him or her free of charge.

The Student Association Senate approved A Just Brew, which will be open 8 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a unanimous vote during a Sunday meeting in the Holmes Student Center, Sky Room.

A Just Brew is a student-run, non-profit coffee shop. It was founded in 2013 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and has since opened locations at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and now NIU.

Nicholas Repp, sophomore business management major, is the president of NIU’s A Just Brew chapter.

The organization is not only making coffee accessible to students who can’t afford it; it also is fighting for a cause. A Just Brew is devoted to fighting against human trafficking and slavery.

“We [support our cause by] serving and brewing coffee,” Repp said.

Repp, along with the other members of the organization, plan to brew coffee for students and collect donations to send to the International Justice Mission, a non-profit organization that takes part in ending slavery in the U.S. and overseas.

Members go around the world and rescue people from situations involving acts such as sex trafficking, slavery, forced labor and property grabbing.

Unlike Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and the College Grind, A Just Brew serves craft coffee, meaning the coffee takes a little longer to make and the beans are specially-made.

“We buy purified water and [then] coffee beans from small coffee roasters,” Repp said. “There is a better taste in beans that are roasted by small companies. The taste is less bitter and less bland, and definitely more flavorful. And people will be more inclined to try it.”

A Just Brew has projected more than $8,000 in donations since starting in 2013, Repp said during the Sunday meeting.

“I would for sure try it,” freshman accountancy major Jaime Pellegrini said. “I think it’s great that an organization like this is on campus because now a lot of students will want to get involved with helping out the cause.”

Morgan Fink is a staff writer. She can be reached at [email protected].