Story by Abby Taylor
November 6, 2026
Most thrifted items have a journey. We just don’t usually get to follow along.
When Juli Fast, manager of Care & Share Thrift Shop in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, visited Country Gift & Thrift Shoppe in Gap, Pennsylvania, she wasn’t expecting to find the solution to a problem more than 1,000 miles from home.
Care & Share’s attached coffee shop had been struggling with a broken espresso machine. While staff had patched it up well enough to keep serving customers, they were still searching for a permanent solution. Then, during Juli’s visit, Country Gift & Thrift manager Krystal Moore mentioned one of the shop’s more unusual donations: a commercial espresso machine.
It was valuable, but finding the right buyer for it in the thrift shop might prove difficult.
Juli, meanwhile, knew exactly where it could be put to use.
Krystal generously offered the machine to Care & Share. There was just one question: How do you get a commercial espresso machine from Pennsylvania to Minnesota?
As it turns out, one thrift shop at a time.
Heading west
A week later, Krystal brought the espresso machine to the Ephrata Material Resources Center, where she met with Carolyn Strong, East Coast thrift shop coordinator. The espresso machine was transferred into Carolyn’s car to start its journey.
The timing couldn’t have been much better. Carolyn was already planning a road trip across the Midwest to visit family in Iowa, with stops at several MCC Thrift shops along the way. She could bring the machine as far as Crowded Closet in Iowa City, where another traveller could take it from there.
And so, the espresso machine hit the road.
Its first stop was Hartville Thrift Shoppe in Hartville, Ohio. While the machine waited in the car, Carolyn spent time at the shop and met Merilyn, a cashier who shared why the thrift shop community means so much to her.
After her husband of 52 years passed away, Merilyn says, “I was withering.” Her son encouraged her to try volunteering at the thrift shop. She reluctantly agreed, and she’s been there ever since, finding support, care and community among the people at Hartville Thrift.
Merilyn also had an important tip for Carolyn before she left town: “Get the chocolate-dipped cone from Almost Heaven; it just melts in your mouth!” It’s a stop Merilyn likes to make on her way home from the shop.
With ice cream enjoyed and the espresso machine still safely tucked away in the trunk, it was time to keep moving west.
Conversations along the way
The next stop was The Depot in Goshen, Indiana, where another thrift shop encounter followed Carolyn beyond the store.
After her visit, Carolyn stopped at The Chief, a local lunch and ice cream favourite, and happened to run into Jan, a volunteer she’d met earlier that day. The two shared food in a gazebo while Jan talked about her connections to MCC, from serving in Central Africa to now volunteering at The Depot.
Jan reflected that, for many volunteers, the thrift shop is about community and being with others. For her, volunteering is also a way to support the mission of MCC.
“Both are good,” she says. “It’s good to be able to talk and work at the same time.”
Meanwhile, the espresso machine was proving to be a fairly easygoing travel companion. It mostly stayed put in Carolyn’s trunk, occasionally getting shuffled around to make room for thrift finds from Ohio and Indiana, along with some Iowa popcorn.
Eventually, Carolyn and her increasingly full car arrived at Crowded Closet in Iowa City.
There, she met Lois, the self-described “chief shoelace volunteer.” Carolyn was struck by Lois’ humour, humility and appreciation for the community she’d found at the shop.
“The people here are the cream of the crop,” Lois says. “And they like me!”
Later, Carolyn bumped into Lois again in the checkout line, this time with a cart full of fall decorations for her family.
By this point, a theme was emerging. At each stop, Carolyn was finding communities of people brought together by thrift.
And at Crowded Closet, it was time to pass the espresso machine along to the next person in that community.
Passing the baton
Andrew Wright, Central States director of programs, arrived at Crowded Closet after the machine had made its way from Pennsylvania through Ohio and Indiana to Iowa. He spent an afternoon learning from shop staff, volunteering with the MCC Central States board and, as he readily admitted, doing a little shopping too.
At the end of the day, the espresso machine was loaded up once again, this time for the drive north to Minneapolis.
After a night nestled under a blanket in Andrew’s locked garage, it was time for the final hand-off.
Andrew set out on a rainy drive toward St. Peter, Minnesota, where he had arranged to meet Juli.
Of course, for an espresso machine that had already travelled this far, there was really only one appropriate meeting place: a coffee shop.
At River Rock Coffee & Tea, Andrew and Juli shared a cup of coffee and conversation before transferring the machine from one vehicle to the other.
From there, Juli carried it on the final stretch to Mountain Lake.
A new home and a fresh cup
After travelling through five states and passing through several sets of helping hands, the espresso machine had finally reached its destination.
And it didn’t take long to get it to work.
At Care & Share, the machine found its new home in the shop’s coffee bar, where it now brews coffee for customers every day.
The espresso machine’s trip was certainly unusual, but the communities it encountered along the way are at the heart of MCC Thrift.
At each stop, there were people giving their time, finding friendship, supporting a mission they care about and making room for others. When one thrift shop received an item it couldn’t easily use, another happened to need exactly that. And when that item needed to travel more than 1,000 miles to get there, a network of people helped move it a little farther down the road.
Before the machine had brewed a single beverage in Mountain Lake, it had already done something coffee has a wonderful way of doing: bringing people together.
Get involved
When you support MCC Thrift, you’re part of something powerful: A place where everyone wins. For 50 years, MCC Thrift continues to help provide relief, development and peace in the name of Christ for people all over the world. Whether it’s choosing to shop secondhand as an eco-friendly practice, finding a bargain on daily necessities, clearing the clutter from your home, volunteering hours in your week or providing funds for global relief, development and peace programs, countless people benefit locally and around the world because you choose to shop at your local MCC Thrift shop. Visit mccthrift.com/locations to find an MCC Thrift shop near you.