<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0iSdwR_0uxhgAO300" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0iSdwR_0uxhgAO300" width="928" height="487" >Walking out of Casey’s Bakery on a Saturday morning with two chocolate snails and an old fashioned doughnut with the majority of a $5 bill left in my pocket seemed a bit like larceny. Maybe even highway robbery as I pondered on it a bit. Not so much that the baked goods in the white waxy paper bag I was toting seemed overpriced (quite the opposite, actually), but that a couple bucks seemed hardly enough payment for the real value I’d received from this place.Just a couple days before I was there early in the morning around a table with Bibles and other men in fellowship. At the counter, regulars had started putting their breakfast orders in. And a few feet away a table of retired men boisterously checked in for the day — no doubt comparing rainfall amounts, crops or grandkids. At lunch, folks will gather for a sandwich and a business discussion that’s far too important to have at the office.Even if I used all my fingers and toes, I’d have a hard time tallying the number of church council follow ups, school questions, job interviews, business exchanges, heart cries, belly laughs or wise words of advice that have made their way back and forth across a Casey’s table during my time in Sioux Center. The sandwiches and baked goods are tasty, to be sure (my daughter, who worked there for a stint, knows well my weakness for “old-fashioneds”), but the real worth is in the feast of fellowship in a community space with a melting pot of wide smiled local folks and wafting bakery smells.I am, by the way, an equal opportunity pastry, coffee and camaraderie sharer — and the local choices are all 5 star establishments as far as I’m concerned. I guess Casey’s was probably just my first “go-to.”As I stop to think about Sioux Center and all the business, church, school and community folks that make their way into one of our “hometown” coffee shops, I presume my imagination can only capture but a fractional glimpse of what has transpired in these places. I suspect multimillion dollar business deals, town growth strategies, crisis mitigation blueprints, converted hearts, God-sized dreams and all the commitments and plans for implementation have saturated the tables of these places. All over a couple dollar cup of coffee and a pastry or two.On top of that, they donate to our causes, provide employment for teenagers, offer tables, chairs and Wi-Fi without charge, and they’re cornerstones for ideas, mentorship, community, and encouragement. I suppose we probably owe them quite a bunch more than what we pay for a Saturday morning sweet treat or a quick caffeine fix. But in case you are feeling you need to give in to one of those vices, I recommend an old fashioned — they melt in your mouth!Paul Ross is the development director at Sioux Center Christian School.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

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Ross: Coffee shops are the cornerstones for ideas

Walking out of Casey’s Bakery on a Saturday morning with two chocolate snails and an old fashioned doughnut with the majority of a $5 bill left in my pocket seemed a bit like larceny. Maybe even highway robbery as I pondered on it a bit. Not so much that the baked goods in the white waxy paper bag I was toting seemed overpriced (quite the opposite, actually), but that a couple bucks seemed hardly enough payment for the real value I’d received from this place.