MINNEAPOLIS – Caribou Coffee is providing a kick-start for Minnesotans this spring—and it’s not a shot of espresso. Caribou announced today it will provide its guests and local gardening organizations with free used espresso grounds for their gardens, via the company’s new Grounds for Your Ground program.
Caribou customers may pick up five-pound recycled bags of used grounds from retail locations for use in their home or community gardens starting Monday, April 21st. The company is dedicated to supporting local gardens and gardening organizations with an existing reusable resource—espresso grounds.
Caribou will also donate used coffee grounds to two local organizations this spring to help landscaping in Minneapolis flourish, including Minneapolis Parks & Recreation’s spring planting events and the Downtown Improvement District.
Minneapolis Parks & Recreation’s two community planting events will take place on May 10 from 9 a.m. to noon at Loring Park Garden of the Seasons and on May 17 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Lyndale Park Gardens.
At these events, Caribou Coffee will provide bulk bags of used grounds for volunteers to work into the soil. Volunteers will also take home free five-pound bags of used grounds so they can kick-start their own gardens this season.
“We at Minneapolis Parks & Recreation are so excited to partner with Caribou on this local environmental initiative,” says Sherry Brooks, Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Environmental Stewardship Volunteer Coordinator.
“We appreciate that Caribou Coffee, as a local company, is giving something they have in abundance – used espresso grounds – to enrich the planting soil right here in Minneapolis.”
The Downtown Improvement District gardeners will use Caribou’s coffee grounds as a part of its new landscaping plan for Peavey Plaza.
“Caribou is committed to a healthier planet and reusing espresso grounds for local planting in Minneapolis parks and gathering spaces is a natural fit,” says Michele Vig, VP of Marketing at Caribou Coffee.
“This program is part of a larger, corporate wide sustainability initiative that includes water conservation, composting and waste reduction that we’ll be rolling out this spring.”
Coffee and espresso grounds act as an organic soil fertilizer for gardens as they are high in nitrogen, potassium and other plant nutrients. Using coffee grounds in gardening can deter pests, stimulate growth of certain plants and may help speed up the composting process.
