Next fall, in the new Health and Learning Center on campus, there will be a café focusing on community, health, education and sustainability. For the past year, a group of students, faculty and the action research teams in the Masters of Sustainable Communities program have been conversing about the café and focusing on making the idea a reality.

Bryan McLaren, a student in the Masters of Sustainable Communities program and a mentor for the café’s action research team, said the idea started out small, and it started with food.

“The café began as an extremely abstract idea, which emerged from a brainstorming session,” McLaren said. “Within the action research teams that Rom Coles and Blaise Scarnati created through the [Masters of] Sustainable Communities program and the first year seminars, the café started as a group of people attempting to create a public space on NAU’s campus. This space was intended to cultivate an atmosphere of education, well-being and sustainability. Naturally, we immediately began to visualize this space as one with food; food inherently brings people together.”

Although sustainability has been addressed in conversations about the café, it is not a certainty. However, McLaren said the hope is to have the café be sustainable in a physical way — energy-efficient, carbon-neutral and LEED-certified — and in a cultural sense.

“The sustainability of the café means creating an enduring atmosphere for students and community members that will focus on education, well-being and topics of cultural and social sustainability — like environmental and social justice, pollution, and consumption,” McLaren said. “In this way, the café will be sustainable because students and community members will continue to come to the café, buy food and share meaningful conversations.”

Caleb Phillips, another student in the Masters of Sustainable Communities program and a facilitator for the café’s action research team, said this new café can bring more sustainable ideas and projects to NAU’s campus.

“Part of the café is to provide a model for the rest of the campus — then we can begin the transformation of the campus as a whole,” Phillips said. “An important aspect of sustainability is our involved citizens, and we want our students to be invested in their food and their social conversation. We need to provide an intentional space for that.”

Phillips also said the café will improve the community of Flagstaff beyond the NAU campus.

“The role of the café [is to] provide a bridge between the campus and the rest of the community,” Phillips said. “The café will effectively root students of NAU to Flagstaff in ways that they may not be.”

Underclassmen have been contributing to the café’s progress by networking with on-campus organizations and clubs. Kelli Tresgallo, a freshman photography major, said she has learned about social change while participating in the café’s action research team.

“The café has taught me that when students come together to work to create something that is important to them, they really do have the power to stimulate change and spread awareness,” Tresgallo said.

Tresgallo said she hopes the café will breed conversations about protecting the environment while also serving local and sustainable food.

“The café will offer students a healthy, eco-friendly alternative source of on-campus food,” Tresgallo said. “Not only that, but it will also be a good place to spread environmental awareness and to meet people with similar views. Even if people just want to come in to have a snack, view artwork and watch performances, they will be helping the environment without even knowing it.”

For next semester, the café’s action research team will be holding a campuswide meeting open to the public. Students can contact either Bryan McLaren or Caleb Phillips for involvement, or visit green.nau.edu’s “Community Engagement” link for more information.