Inspiring Conversations with Miranda Singleton of Ground Roots Coffee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Miranda Singleton

Hi Miranda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ground Roots Coffee was established in 2019 by a family trio made up of Beth Holmes, Miranda Singleton and Bryan Singleton. Mostly ran by Beth and Miranda, a mother-daughter team. After many years in the banking industry, Beth decided it was time for a change. The purchase of a trailer was made and renovations began. The inside was gutted and turned into a mobile coffee shop. Thus the long time dream of Beth’s was born. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, Beth would set up outside of schools, neighborhoods and businesses selling what we at Ground Roots consider an essential commodity. COFFEE. Ground Roots made its way around the Kansas City metro for a couple years selling coffee. Over this time the trailer and vehicles took a lot to maintain and maintenance. We began to move towards the idea of finding a permanent location. Through lots of searching a place was found in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. We started our plans to build from the ground up. Moved forward with marketing the location and pushing to get the word out and working on getting involved in the community. Unfortunately, this was not in God’s plan. After much heartache and work we had to move on. During this time of uncertainty another opportunity presented itself to us. When God closes one door, he opens another. We had learned through family of another coffee shop in Oak Grove, Missouri closing its doors. We contacted the owners, met with them about taking over the lease and just like that Ground Roots Coffee had a place to call home. We opened our doors in March of 2023. We have slowly become an integral part of the community. Working very hard to establish relationships with our customers, creating a comfortable, safe and inviting space for everyone that walks through our doors. While each of the owners have a major part in creating and maintaining the coffee shop, Beth is typically the smiling face you see when you come into Ground Roots. She is responsible for the day to day operations. Our primary goal is to create a community environment and an outstanding cup of coffee. Which we may be biased, but we definitely feel like we have succeeded so far.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been smooth sailing, no. While in the trailer we came across many obstacles pertaining to the trailer itself. It was old and required a particular person that knew how to repair and work on something like that. Not to mention the cost. Parts are very specific which in turn made them less available and more expensive. We had major issues with the generator used to run the mobile trailer. It was VERY loud and made it hard to hear customers when ordering. Unfortunately, this was a complaint we often heard. Finding power sources to hook up to when we were parked for an event was difficult. We could only run so much power limiting things we could offer. Space was VERY limited. Then of course the whole issue with our Lee’s Summit location that fell through. We had a year long back and forth with that. Put up a lot of time, energy and money for something that just wasn’t in the cards. But again it was for a reason and only God knows that reason. Well honestly we believe it was so that we could be placed on the path that put us where we are now in Oak Grove. We are truly blessed to have found our current home and have the opportunity to be a part of the lives of so many people. It’s also taken us all some time to navigate working together as a unit. It can at times be difficult working so closely with family. Especially moving into something none of us have ever done before. Very stressful and lots of unknowns. We all were learning (and still are) along the way and figuring it all out together. Which in turn has made us stronger as a unit. Although, after all that, the whole process of finding our current home, the transition of taking over our current space, working with the owners of the previous coffee shop, the renovations we did to prepare for opening and getting established in the community…that all in all did go pretty smoothly. We are so proud of our little shop and truly blessed to be here.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Ground Roots Coffee?
The Ground Roots mission statement…

Our mission at Ground Roots Coffee is to create a positive and inclusive environment. All the while supplying our customers with the best that our community has to offer by partnering with other local businesses. Our promise is to serve the community with integrity and honesty. Our goal is to empower women by collaborating with other women owned businesses and helping others in our community. At Ground Roots you are family and family is the root of our business.

Our overall goal at Ground Roots is to provide an outstanding product and customer service experience. We want our customers to feel like they are family and provide a shared space for the community. We host several monthly events at the shop including Monday night Bunco, Sip and Paint and a book club. We try to participate in fundraisers and events in the community when we can. We rent out our space for small private parties such as baby and bridal showers, graduation parties, birthdays, etc. Saturday mornings we open our doors to local vendors from Oak Grove and the KC metro to set up to promote and sell their products. Sprinkled throughout we have craft nights, host cuppings with our coffee roaster, tea parties, doggy costume parties, homeschool meet ups, networking groups, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day events. All of which you can stay up to date on our socials. If it’s something that can fit in our little shop and will bring joy to others and help bring the community together we are all for it. The majority of our products we sell in our shop are from smaller, local businesses. We understand the struggles of a small business and want to be able to help others succeed as well. Ground Roots offers a wide variety of options from coffee to cocktails. You heard that right. We serve alcohol. So if you’re ever looking for a quiet date night or somewhere to go with a friend for an intimate conversation, we can provide that for you. Other products are a wide variety of pastries from Scratch Bakery in North Kansas City, gluten free options from Flavor Market in Holden, breakfast burritos, salads (seasonal) and sandwiches also from Scratch Bakery, our coffee beans are roasted and delivered fresh from Broadway Roasters in downtown Kansas City (we have our own special blend found only at Ground Roots), coffee subscriptions are available, we offer craft beer from Fringe Beerworks in Lee’s Summit, the honey we use in all our drinks and sell on the shelf is from Uprooted Farm in Kingsville, our clothing from Dean’s Trophies in Lee’s Summit and not local but definitely a sought out item is the yummy, refreshing, plant-based energy drinks by Lotus Energy. You just have to stop in to experience all we have to offer. We would truly love to meet you!

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Just get out there and ask questions. More times than not people are willing to help. If you walk into a small business and are curious on how they operate, what products they use, methods of marketing, etc more than likely they are going to be open to answering your questions. Because, again, they too know what it’s like to be in the beginning stages of a business and how stressful, scary and unfamiliar it all can be. Very rarely have we found that other small business owners are unwilling to give you some advice and insight. If they are not open to answering a few questions then move on and don’t take it personal. Those are not your people. We are in the business of lifting others up and seeing that everyone succeeds. After all you cannot have a thriving community if no one is willing to help out one another and there’s only one on top.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.groundrootscoffeekc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/groundrootscoffee_og
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GroundRootsCoffeeOG