Osseo Coffee Shop Helping Teachers Get Back to School
Annabelle House, a homegrown Osseo coffee shop, is giving back to its teachers by helping them “clear the list.”
Three years ago, Ashley and Mark Cook opened the shop when they noticed something was missing in the small town.
“When I first started this business, I was like: ‘This is going to be a cute little coffee shop. We’re going to have like eight customers a day, and it’s going to be great,” Ashley Cook said. “It’s definitely blown up beyond that.”
Teachers are a big part of the Cooks’ clientele — Mark Cook is one himself.
“It’s very humbling to see people show up for us and the need we clearly had,” Ashley said. “We really built this space for the community.”
Ashley Cook works with her staff in the kitchen at Annabelle House.
Now, Ashley wants to show up for the community that’s shown up for her business. A few teachers reached out to Annabelle House earlier this summer asking the business to share their classroom lists. Ashley decided to go bigger and posted a call on Facebook for more lists.
She also asked people to nominate a Minnesota teacher in the comments.
“The response was overwhelming in a great way, so now we have lots of lists,” she said.
She’s posting a list each day. This gives the teachers more exposure, so people can donate to each list at-will. Once she’s done posting at least a week’s worth, she plans to share every list in another single post.
Plus, two lucky teachers will get $250 for their classroom. They also get a little something for themselves — an Annabelle House gift card.
The Annabelle House shares an Amazon Wishlist like this to its Facebook page each day.
“We know that teachers need caffeine to keep them going, so it’ll be two gift cards with that one,” she said.
For Ashley, it all comes down to giving back.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have some really amazing teachers that have really impacted our kids’ lives,” she said. “So, being able to do something so small for them is rewarding for me.”
It isn’t too late to nominate someone or send Annabelle House your list. You can leave a comment on the shop’s Instagram or Facebook pages.
