Jacob Pendley and Megan Toomey have been friends for the last 14 years, and business partners for the last two. Toomey said, with Pendley’s experience as a bartender and her love of all things natural and upcycled, The Spot Coffee and Finery has become their little place in the community.
The Spot supports local artists and businesses in the community that repurpose items, are made from natural materials or are eco-friendly. One current business featured at The Spot is Marby’s Scents, which uses cups upcycled from Goodwill, soy candle wax and essential oils to provide a more environmentally-friendly candle option. Medieval Man Studio offers found metal art from recycled car parts and metal items.
Beginning last spring, The Spot offered a large container of brewed coffee and espresso grounds on the side of their building. With planting season in its early stages this spring, the partners are encouraging those that need grounds for compost to bring their own containers and help themselves. Although they do have plastic bags available as well.
With the high acidity in espresso grounds, Toomey cautions gardeners to do their research before putting grounds directly on flowers or in gardens. Grounds are an excellent addition to compost and earthworm bins and can serve as a fertilizing or mulching agent.
“In a compost pile, where you put your scraps of produce and paper, that will go in there, no problem,” Toomey said. “It’s just good for compost and certain things that like acid.”
According to the Global Healing Center, coffee grounds are particularly good for plants which thrive on nitrogen such as tomatoes, roses, blueberries and evergreens.
“The other really good thing is that those are organic beans, so there are absolutely no chemicals in those grounds whatsoever,” Pendley said.
Aside from offering grounds for compost, The Spot also uses Go Recycling for all of their plastic items and has gone to recycled paper straws for their cold drinks to be more eco-friendly.
As for the future, Toomey said The Spot coffee bus will be making more appearances this summer and is also flexible in catering options with their traveling espresso station.
For more information on how to make compost click here.
