Community State Bank Brews Up Coffee and Community

Since 2018, the lobby of $650 million-asset Community State Bank (CSB) has housed Shepherds Community Café, a donation-based coffee shop established through a partnership between the community bank and Shepherds College, both of which are located in Union Grove, Wisconsin.

Shepherds College is a non-degree-granting, accredited institution dedicated to teaching students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It teamed up with CSB to open a café that would give back to Shepherds students, bank staff and customers, and the broader community. 

With Shepherds students as baristas and CSB as its primary financial supporter, the café collects donations from each purchase, then splits them between Shepherds College and Shepherds Community Café, to help cover operating costs. 

Customers, staff and friends of the cause can visit on weekday mornings to grab a coffee and get work done while doing good for the local community.

Breaking barriers, one brew at a time

From the onset, CSB CEO Scott Huedepohl envisioned something beyond a café for the community bank’s employees and customers. The collaboration between CSB and Shepherds College is what truly made the café concept special, especially with the incorporation of Shepherds College’s community of students with disabilities. 

Cyndi Lambdin, café manager, says one to two students join the café team each year to work toward completing their occupational education experience. “They’re here with us for the semester, and they learn how to do all the things that a barista does,” she says. 

In addition to Lambdin, volunteer baristas who are or have previously attended Shepherds College run the café. Shepherds Community Café is not only an opportunity for students to gain real-world experience but also to build ties between community members.

“Everyone is so kind, so patient, so understanding. … That relaxes [the students] and makes them feel more comfortable in what they’re doing and their abilities.”

—Cyndi Lambdin, Shepherds Community Café

Both a job and a chance to hone life skills

Due to the daily interaction with volunteers at the café, many locals have come to understand the effort that Shepherds College students are putting into their education, Lambdin shares.

The café gives students the opportunity to develop their skills in an occupational setting. 

“[Working at the café] helps me with talking,” says Leah Migliaccio, a Shepherds College alumnus and a barista at the café.

Lambdin explains that in other environments, like a larger coffee shop chain, her student baristas might encounter customers who lack patience or understanding.

“But when [customers] come here, everyone is so kind, so patient, so understanding,” she says. “So, that relaxes [the students] and makes them feel more comfortable in what they’re doing and their abilities.”

When encountering challenges in the café, Lambdin has learned the importance of intentionality when taking steps to find a solution. “You have to take time out and assess everything, talk it through, see where it’s coming from,” she says. “It’s not only just working; as in any business, you become family.”

From taking the time to learn and communicate, Lambdin has built lasting relationships with her student baristas. While some students move away following their graduations, many continue to visit or volunteer at the café. 

A café at the heart of the community

The café and its staff are constantly supported, from morning coffee runs to graduation celebrations for volunteers. 

“[CSB supports] us in every aspect,” Lambdin says. “[The bank] always wants us to grow and be better at who we are and what we are here.”

Lambdin shares how she and the volunteers get to know and recognize bank staff who get their morning coffee from the café or attend celebrations hosted in the café’s community spaces. The café team is often invited to attend bank events, either to provide coffee or socialize like any other bank employee.

Her barista team primarily serves customers within the café’s brick-and-mortar location but will often travel out to the community to support various bank, college and local business events that may benefit from coffee and bakery items.

Continuing the goals set by Huedepohl, the café is a focal point of the local community. 

“We celebrate [our customers’] birthdays and acknowledgements and stuff like that,” Lambdin says. “The community here is like one big family that just rotates in and out.”