Lutheran Student Center adding coffee shop with ‘Mead’s Corner concept’

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The Lutheran Student Center, located just south of the Wichita State main campus, is planning to convert part of its building into a coffee shop for students.

The center is a ministry for WSU students, founded by the Holy Cross Church in 1972. It has served as space for Bible studies, service projects, student meetings and organizing mission trips.

Construction is set to begin in March, a month before a new Starbucks is scheduled to open on the Innovation Campus, and open for business by fall 2017.

Paige Edgington, director of campus outreach for the Lutheran Student Center, said the center had been thinking about opening a coffee shop long before the university announced plans for a Starbucks on campus.

Edgington said the center plans to sell coffee from local coffee shop Reverie at cheaper prices than the Innovation Campus Starbucks and would cater to a different need for students.

“We offer a different way to interact with the community,” she said.

Darryl Carrington, community liaison, said the coffee shop was an attempt to create a sense of community in the Fairmount neighborhood after a series of “high profile crimes.”

“There’s a big perception that this is a scary neighborhood,” Edgington said. “But it really just takes people coming together to beat that. We’re excited to be a part of that.”

Sara Carroll, a junior and president of Anchored, the center’s student organization, said the coffee shop would have a “cozy, hometown coffee shop feel” that sets it apart from Starbucks.

Carroll said making it a place for live music and student art would make it more inviting and bring a sense of Shocker pride to the community.

“Being right off campus, we want that kind of ownership where students feel like, ‘Yeah, that’s our coffee shop,’” Carroll said.

A name for the coffee shop will be chosen Tuesday.