How Does A Cup Of Coffee Makes Community?
There are around 24,000 coffee shops in the US and the average coffee shop sells around 250 cups of coffee every day. These were some of the coffee facts I read on a health website that had recommended “33 coffee statistics that all coffee drinkers need to know.”
Going to a coffee shop has become a cultural norm in American society. A lot of the time we will go to the coffee shop for more than just coffee. You’ll see people studying, doing work, meeting a friend or coworker. I’ve even seen interviews taking place at a coffee shop.
This week I got to talk with Caitlin. She started The Red Balloon Cafe in 2015. About the time her coffee shop closed down in 2020, Community Happens Here was starting up.
Caitlin and Ruth Anne were friends when Ruth Anne had the idea to have a coffee shop at CHH. She immediately asked her friend Caitlin to help develop clear ideas of how the coffee shop would function.
The design they had for the coffee shop was to be an inviting way for anyone in the neighborhood to come on in. It can be difficult to enter a place you may not know much about for the first time, but a coffee shop provides a neutral ground for anyone to come inside.
Caitlin shared a story of a time she met up with a friend she hadn’t seen for a long time. Her friend wanted to get together to talk about schools in the neighborhood for her children. Caitlin immediately thought of the coffee shop at CHH to be the best place to meet up. And while they were there, Caitlin's friend ended up seeing one of her good friends at CHH.
Caitlin’s story was a great example of how the coffee shop offers its space for friends to come together, and also a place in the community where you might find yourself running into other friends.
At Community Happens Here they also offer a Teen Barista program. It’s open to students grades 7-12. It provides an intensive business training program that gives them knowledge and skills that are transferable to many business settings.
Along with this program, CHH works with Pleasant Ridge Montessori to offer a school based curriculum called the Coffee Cup Cafe. This offers students an entrepreneurship class. They have seen a very positive impact from this, and have 70 students sign up just this year. Caitlin and Ruth Anne lead this curriculum.
Caitlin has enjoyed working with Ruth Anne in helping to start the coffee shop at Community Happens Here. And because her Red Balloon Cafe closed the same time CHH Cafe opened, she donated one of her espresso makers to CHH. Thus the Red Balloon Cafe lives on through Community Happens Here Cafe.