Antioch College
IN-27: Innovation D

“Building Community at Antioch’s Olive Kettering Library: Coffee, Snacks, and Camaraderie“ is a loosely-knit collection of actions occurring at Antioch College’s Olive Kettering Library (OKL). As a tiny college, we have no on-campus coffee shop. The OKL program fills this gap in many ways that connect to sustainability in its broadest ways: social, economic, and environmental. “Coffee, snacks and camaraderie” builds community on our tiny campus, across our tiny college. This is not a “top-down” program but a grass-roots set of generous activities by staff of the campus library. The OKL program offers free coffee for students and no paper cups: the mugs are sourced from local thrift stores or students provide their own. For those who can pay (faculty, staff, community members), there is a “coffee club” that is roughly $5 a month, and we take turns making fresh coffee and composting our grinds. Snacks are made available at (or below) cost on an honor system, where consumers either pay the library clerk or post IOUs on a poster board. We have a “pay-it-forward” culture, where folks often pick up others’ IOUs and pay for others as they settle up their own IOUs. Sometimes, members of the community generously come in and cover everyone’s IOUs. All of these things together create a sense of support and community, that we are looking after each other in a generous and sustainable way. The OKL, for many students and campus community members, serves as a coffee shop, meeting place, study zone, and place for campus engagement. Our campus library is also used by emeritus staff and members of the village of Yellow Springs -- it is an intergenerational gathering place that is valued by all as a very Antiochian experience.