Elpis’s reusable coffee bean tote bags can be found in many different places across Minnesota, but one of the more popular spots in the summertime is Green Bridge Coffee in Stillwater.
Green Bridge is a popular coffee shop located in Stillwater’s historic downtown riverfront and has been partnering with Elpis for the last couple of years. Owner Matt Onken is a retired educator, and when he learned of Elpis’s mission, he knew it would be a good partnership for his shop beyond just having new merchandise for customers to browse.
“Being a teacher prior to owning a business, I worked in area learning centers where we were always working with populations where there was some homelessness or you had family situations where the kids weren’t always living at home because of what was going on there,” said Onken. “So anything to be able to help that population get on their feet and do adult things is very important to us.”
Before having the Elpis reusable coffee bean tote bags in their shop, Green Bridge didn’t have merchandise to go around for their customers. They get a couple or a few dozen bags on each order, and every time, they sell out quickly.
“Typically, they have some pretty cool designs on them. In fact, we’ll even find random coffee bags and hang them up on the walls and stuff. The ones that have pretty unique artwork on them, so we thought that would be a neat thing for people as they wait for the coffee.”
The bags are hopefully just the start of a beautiful partnership between Elpis and Green Bridge. As more and more bags are brought to Green Bridge for customers to purchase, and helps support the interns working in Elpis to put them together.
“Any little bits and pieces that we can do to help in that process is very important to us. So we try to keep a focus on that and we are a shop that are open to everybody and anybody.”
