After more than 5 years of planning, fundraising, and dreaming of opening the HAS HEART Coffee Shop, the walls are coming down, and renovations are underway.
For the past 10+ years, we’ve only had 1-month pop-up shops and exhibits to share our mission, showcase the HERO[series] projects, and generate revenue to fund the next year’s project. We’ve relied on a small team of volunteers and have kept our liabilities and expenses to a minimum.
More than 12 years after our founders, Michael and Tyler, met over a cup of coffee, we’re now just five months away from serving our own coffee within a historic building on the grounds of Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Grand Rapids, MI.
The plan is to open up the small interior space to feature the coffee bar in the center with a few bar stools, a handful of chairs and tables for veterans and civilians to connect with one another, veterans’ stories featured on the walls, a rotating selection of specialty HAS HEART products and more.
We’re also building a walk-up order window with outdoor seating to enable customers to order while outside enjoying the meaningful Veterans Memorial Park and the oak trees shading the city’s oldest park.
Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without the help of several partners, organizations, foundations, and individual contributors, including:
Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation
Downtown Development Authority
Grand Rapids Community Foundation
Pfeiffer-Lincoln Foundation
Michigan Arts & Culture Council
Anonymous Donor
For more updates, be sure to follow HAS HEART on Instagram and Facebook, sign-up for our newsletter, and bookmark the Coffee Shop page for more info over the coming months.