Director of Brand Relations Randy James is Focused on the Mission at FDC

In the earliest years, Randy James watched from a close but casual distance as Fire Dept. Coffee grew. 

He’d worked for the Rockford Fire Department, just more than 30 miles from his hometown of Mount Morris, since he was hired in 2000. He saw fellow Rockford firefighter Luke Schneider launch Fire Dept. Coffee in 2016 and, little by little, he saw it gaining momentum.

When Randy noticed how busy Luke and his quickly expanding team had become, he offered to help.

“I started helping during the peak holiday rush, and it just continued for the past three years,” he said. “I started in the shipping department, just learning the day-to-day operations. I spent time helping develop efficiencies and working to tighten up processes. The more I learned about FDC, the more I wanted to help. The mission of FDC and The FDC Foundation appealed the most to me.”

Now, in addition to being a driver engineer and a paramedic for Rockford Fire Department, Randy is also our Director of Brand Relations. His outgoing personality, his connections and his deep understanding of the firefighter community — he’s been a paramedic for more than 25 years — make him ideal for the role.

Randy works closely with our partners and drives brand awareness through social media and content creation. He’s also deeply involved with the Fire Department Coffee Foundation, helping us build relationships with the organizations that serve firefighters and other first responders confronting physical and mental health issues.

His dedication and focus keeps us moving forward each day. For Randy, everything we do comes back to our customers and our mission.

“I work with a crew that is dedicated to producing a great product and offering outstanding customer service every single day, but the loyalty of our customers is what really inspires me,” he said. “They make all the work through our foundation possible. Every single one of our customers has helped fund the FDC Foundation, which gives support to the heroes who need it.  They allow us to do the work that we do, and I'm thankful for them.”

His spirit of giving and his heart for the community are traits that Randy brought with him to Fire Dept. Coffee. He and his wife have always shown a strong desire to help those who just need a little lift to get them through the day or past a rough patch in the road.

They’re active members of their church, which gives them even more opportunities to give back, and we’re honored to support those efforts, too. Randy’s wife helped start and run their church’s food bank to help provide basic essentials to local individuals and families. Now those essentials sometimes include bags of Fire Dept. Coffee.

“After all”, Randy said, “Everybody deserves a good cup of coffee.”