See Beautiful Grant Applicant: R&P Coffee Co.

The feature below is brought to you by R&P Coffee Co., an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 
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To learn more about R&P Coffee Co., please visit their website page: here.

More than a cup of coffee

R&P Coffee Co. is on a mission to make the Shannock Valley Region a better place to live, work, and play.  We want people to feel a sense of pride and see beautiful in our little corner of the world.

How will we do that?
Through the art of Restoration & Placemaking (R&P).  By restoring community and making a place for authentic relationships to happen, we can increase social connections, improve health & the economy, decrease drug & suicide rates, and so much more!  A thriving community hub where people spend time together is just the spark our community needs to get this old coal valley burning once again. Coal will probably never make a come back. If our region is to have any kind of a future, it starts with community.

Why Coffee?
​Coffee shops provide the informal, neutral space, needed for authentic relationships to naturally thrive.  You're primarily there for conversation, you can become a regular, there's no real structure or time constraints to what is happening. A local coffee shop becomes the living room of the community as authentic relationships begin, grow, and thrive.  

We believe that a cup of coffee (or tea, juice, *insert your choice of beverage here*) can lead to conversation, that conversation can lead to commonality, and that commonality can lead to civic responsibility, justice, peace, and harmony within our community.

It’s About More than Just Coffee
The coffeehouse will be designed to attract a diverse range of individuals with events, classes, & activities for all ages. Any profit goes right back into the community.  We want to support local business, restore broken spaces, and bring the community together. Ultimately, restoration & placemaking means serving - serving coffee and serving you.  If there's a need in the community, we want to meet it.

But Why is it Needed?
Ultimately, because society has forgotten the art of neighboring and community, “It occurs to me that this is not a neighborhood; it is only a collection of unconnected individuals” (Philip Langdon).  1 in 4 Americans (or 25%) say they have no one to talk to (compared to just 8% in 1985). If you don’t count family, that number drops to 1 in 2, or 50% of Americans that don’t have someone to depend on.  That disconnect, the isolation that has overwhelmingly invaded American culture has led to many devastating issues (according to a study done in the UK, loneliness is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day!).  

Locally, our county ranks 4th in our state for overdoses per 1,000 citizens.  Within the nation, our state also ranks 4th, placing us in one of the worst drug ravaged areas in our country.  The township we reside in also has a higher than usual suicide rate. With much of the county being rural, this doesn’t come as a surprise, as rural areas usually have higher rates of suicide and abuse.  We are not the exception. It’s time for a change. It’s time to reconnect. It’s time to BE a community once again.

Fun Fact
In an effort to connect the past and present, to span the interest of all generations, and build a sense of pride for the area – history will also be a focus.  By partnering with the up and coming historical society, we hope to display historical pictures throughout the shop. But the neat part iis that even our name pays homage to our past.  Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal and Coke Company (R&P) is the mining organization that built many of the towns locally. Without their presence here, our area wouldn’t have been the booming mining town it once was.  We are here today because of the coal industry. But we will be here tomorrow because of community, because of restoration and placemaking (R&P).

Written by: Bri Sherman

Board President, R&P Coffee Co.