A Coffee Shop Run by Volunteers Needs a System Anyone Can Use

Dwell Coffee runs on volunteers. Every Sunday it's a different crew: high schoolers, retirees, parents with an hour to spare between services. They show up, they make coffee, they hand it out. It works because people want it to work.

Emma is the one who keeps the shelves from going empty.

The logging problem

Coffee goes fast in a church lobby. Between two services, you can burn through a full bag of beans. If whoever was on shift didn't write it down, Emma has no way of knowing until she shows up to restock and finds bare shelves.

She tried spreadsheets. She tried a group chat. Neither lasted.

"We have people of all ages helping out. The idea of everyone logging into a system and updating spreadsheets just wasn't going to happen."

She needed something a retiree and a high schooler could both figure out without any explanation.

One link

Restock doesn't require an account to use. Emma shared a link. That was the whole rollout.

Volunteers can see what's running low, mark things off, leave a note if something ran out mid-morning. No passwords. No training session.

"No logins to manage is a game changer. Everyone can do it. I shared a link and that was it."

She still places the orders herself, but now she knows what to order. Before, she was guessing based on incomplete information and ordering more than she needed just to be safe.

Thursday order, Sunday ready

The shop does drip, a simple espresso bar, and pastries from a local bakery. Volume is unpredictable around holidays and big events.

Now Emma checks stock Thursday, places the order, and the shelves are full before the first volunteer arrives Saturday. It sounds simple because it is. It just needed the right tool to make it work.