Exchange Club delivers comfort to veterans through coffee drive

Thanks to local volunteers, veterans can enjoy a hot cup of coffee while they await care.

The Exchange Club of Owatonna donated over 100 cans of coffee to the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis earlier this month.

The coffee will be available free of charge for veterans and their guests. VA Voluntary Services will distribute a portion of the donation to veterans clinics in communities including Albert Lea, Rochester and Mankato.

In late June, members of the Exchange Club took shifts collecting canned coffee and cash donations outside of Fareway Meat and Grocery. Their efforts raised $1,100, which used used to purchase additional cans of coffee from Fareway. In total, they donated 142 cans of coffee.

Exchange Club members Scott Lundburg and Clark Gustafson delivered the coffee just before the Fourth of July.

Gustafson, chair of the project, estimated the donation will provide 6,816 cups of coffee. When they delivered the coffee, VA staff told them the medical center was down to its last six cans.

Exchange Club organizes the coffee drive annually as one of its Americanism projects.

Now in his third year running the project, Gustafson said making the delivery always leaves him feeling good. He credited Wendell Engelstad and Gordy Meiners, who still volunteer with the coffee drive, for originating the project.