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Here's why Hugh Jackman just visited Cincinnati

Posted at 6:17 PM, Apr 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-12 09:35:00-04

CINCINNATI -- Did you know Hugh Jackman was recently in Cincinnati? 

Yeah, most people didn't.

The Wolverine and Les Misérables star was in town to talk to executives from Kroger about a coffee concept he's working on.

Laughing Man Coffee & Tea is Jackman's brainchild. There are two Laughing Man cafés in Manhattan. He recently made a deal with Keurig, so now Laughing Man is available in K-Cup form.

But the next big break for the business is a deal with Kroger, which would put Laughing Man Coffee & Tea on the shelves of some 1,800 stores across the country. 

"I'm fully aware in this triumvirate -- [with] Kroger, Keurig -- Laughing Man is the little baby, but we're a baby with a big heart, and we really want to grow and we need partners like you guys," Jackman said during his presentation to Kroger, as reported by CBS News.

The special thing about Laughing Man is what Jackman hopes to do for the world. Jackman met a young Ethiopian coffee farmer named Dukale while he was working on a documentary for the humanitarian group World Vision.

Dukale was a struggling to get by as a fair-trade farmer. As he grew closer to Dukale and his family, Jackman wanted to do something to help.

"It's not about what you're given, it's what you do with it," Jackman told CBS News. "So I, unwittingly, was given a profile, and I thought, 'What if, in my brief moment of profile -- let's call it ten years, maybe 20, if I'm lucky -- what if in that period I create something that lives beyond me?'"

Laughing Man is a free-trade organization. But what's more, it's also a charitable one.

Jackman will donate all the company's earnings to a foundation that helps farmers and their families. (It's the same concept as Newman's Own salad dressings).

"That cup of coffee -- and I've seen it -- changes the life of those growers," Jackman told CBS. "That's a massive, massive difference. It is one cup of coffee, but it's changing a life."