Shops featured on 2024’s Mahoning Valley Coffee Trail benefiting Rescue Mission
For the past three years, the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley has invited donors to embark on exploration of local coffee shops, all while helping combat homelessness in the area.
The Mahoning Valley Coffee Trail is a fundraiser for the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley featuring 23 coffee shops in Mahoning, Columbiana and Trumbull counties.
Each coffee shop signs up to offer a complimentary coffee item to trail guide holders during the fall season.
According to Tao Jones, the development coordinator at the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley, the 2024 edition of the Mahoning Valley Coffee Trail sold out in under 72 hours.
“The first year, there were 500 trail guides,” she said. “We sold out in 50 minutes; so we upped it to 750 last year and they sold out in like 72 hours. The same for this year, too. It’s amazing, people are still calling us to see if we have more trail guides available.”
Residents logged on to get a copy of the guide by donating $25 to the Rescue Mission, which added up to $25,750 this year.
“The money goes directly to the mission,” said Jones. “100% stays here in the Valley to help out clients.”
Lynn Wyant, chief development officer at the Rescue Mission, said the trail guide has been a “win all the way around.”
“The shops are pleased with the traffic the coffee trail generates in their stores, our participants get to sample great coffee all over the Valley and have a chance to make a difference at the Mission with their donation and the Rescue Mission can host this event with zero overhead because everything is donated,” Wyant said. “It’s amazing that $25,750 was raised in such a short amount of time and goes straight to our programming.”
How the trail guide works
Once you’ve received your Mahoning Valley Coffee Trail guide, you can visit the shops in any order.
Each coffee shop will mark the pamphlet with their unique codes and you’ll receive your free or discounted drink.
If you visit all of the coffee shops between now and Nov. 27 and collect all the codes, you’ll be entered to win one of three grand prizes.
In each prize pack, there’s several gift cards to be redeemed at participating coffee shops, plus gift baskets, bags of coffee and a grand prize of a barista class at Branch Street Coffee Roastery.
Each of the offers can only be redeemed once.
“The coffee shops are the ones that donate the coffee; they’re the ones that pick their offer what they wanted to give, because each one’s different,” said Jones. “It’s amazing that they care about people, the homeless, that are in our community, and then want to give back and support. We also want to make it beneficial for the coffee shops as well, because it gives them publicity, gets their name out there.”
Cadence Coffeehouse and Creperie
Jodi Markovich at Cadence Coffeehouse and Creperie said they’ve mostly seen trail guide customers come in on Saturdays.
“[The Rescue Mission] contacted us last year, plus it is a nonprofit, and we’re kind of like a work program here,” she said. “So it helps get more business in the door to help the kids.”
The shop, established by Cadence Care Network, is right across the street from the McKinley Memorial in downtown Niles.
At Cadence Coffeehouse, patrons with the trail guide get a free small hot coffee.
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Employees are also preparing breakfast and lunch items, including avocado toast, breakfast burritos, buffalo chicken wraps and crepes made to order.
Cadence Coffeehouse has free WiFi, curbside pickup and events like holiday sip and paint nights.
They’re open daily except Sunday from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Saturday at 31 North Main St. in Niles.
Mocha House
All three family-owned and -operated Mocha House locations in the Mahoning Valley are participating in this year’s coffee trail.
Patrons can pick one of the three Mocha House locations to visit for a free 12-ounce drink of their choice:
- Boardman Mocha House on Route 224 in Boardman
Downtown Youngstown Mocha House at 120 E Boardman St. in Youngstown
Downtown Warren Mocha House at 467 High St. in Warren
There are always new things to try on the food, dessert and drink menu at Mocha House, including fall drinks like apple cider, pumpkin cheesecake and cannoli.
Hallowed Grounds
There’s only one week until Halloween, and if you’re looking for some Halloween spirit and decorations, the interior of Hallowed Grounds is exactly where you should go.
From cobwebs and horror movie masks to giant skeleton feet dangling over the doorway, there are decorations covering this coffee shop in New Middletown.
For fall, they’re serving specialty drinks like the third eye latte, celestial tea and the mothman mocha, plus the signature Solid Ground mocha made with peanut butter and Ghiradelli chocolate.
If you’re looking for something without espresso, try the Bigfoot lemonade
Visit Hallowed Grounds in New Middletown to see the wall of horror films.
Mudslingers
Mudslingers in Niles has been open for over a year now, offering coffee, energy drinks and food through their double drive-through windows in the Great East Plaza in Niles.
Mudslingers is located in the Eastwood Mall Complex, near Hobby Lobby at 825 Great East Plaza.
For fall, they’re offering Count Chocula cold brew and special remakes of their Lotus energy drinks, including the Witches Brew, which tastes like blackberry and pomegranate, with magic glitter.
Trail guide participants on the road who stop at Mudslingers can pick up either a free 16-ounce Lotus energy drink, a 16-ounce cold brew or a 12-ounce signature iced or hot drink.
Stop by the drive-through from 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Sunday.
LiB’s Market
Right inside the doorway at LiB’s Market, the quiet churning of the coffee grinder makes State Street in historic Salem smell like coffee and welcomes you inside.
LiB’s Market in Salem serves fragrant coffee from different regions and loose-leaf teas, plus a display case full of locally-made pastries, like a witch’s hat with glitter icing.
For fall, the Salem specialty coffee roastery is serving up fall-themed drinks made with their own syrup recipe. Try the banana bread latte, pumpkin spiced latte, maple leaf and signature drinks at LiB’s Market.
For participants on the trail guide, they’re offering a free 12-ounce drip coffee which can be ordered hot or iced.
Other shops on the trail guide include:
Mahoning County
- Aunt Martha’s Donut and Coffee Shoppe inside the Amish Market
- Branch Street Coffee Roasters
- Cafe Rose
- Grizzly Bean Coffee House
- High Octane Austintown
- Juny Cafe
- Risi Pizzeria and Italian Cuisine
- The Coffee Shop at Ridgewood
- Trek Coffee House
Columbiana County
- 26:Three Coffee House
- Generations Cafe
- Nourish Coffee and Kitchen
- Steelnative Coffee
- Zonuts and Lattes food truck
Trumbull County
- Cortland Main Street Coffee
- McDivitt Maple Cafe
- Nova Coffee Company or Nova2Go
- Twisted Peacock Coffee Shop
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