Rising Grinds Café was founded in 2014 with the purpose of being a coffee training center for young adults connected to the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation.

Serving a simple food and coffee menu to students and staff of the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation (GRCCT) our main focuses were customer service and identifying our niche within the Madison Square neighborhood.

During the spring of 2016 the plan was to establish a brick and mortar, a project taken on by students in the program, Youthbuild. Unfortunately, those plans took a pivot, due to a devastating fire that burned the renovated building.

During that recovery process, Rising Grinds Cafe solidified its model as a social enterprise and continued to strengthen its team and relationships within the community.

Late summer of 2017 RGC was given the opportunity to transition to a new brick and mortar on the corner of Madison and Hall.

During the pandemic Rising Grinds supported hundreds of families with thousands of home-cooked meals.

In the years since we have continued to synergistically work with GRCCT by being a site for workforce development and employing community members.

Additionally, we have worked to support local food systems and BIPOC entrepreneurs through kitchen takeovers and partnership with the local farmer’s market to support projects like the BIPOC Night Market.