CHESTER, Va. (WRIC) — A coffee shop in Chesterfield County is offering free cups of coffee to school bus drivers after hearing that some were being verbally abused while picking up and dropping off kids.
Grant Coffee Company posted on Facebook saying, “please thank them instead, their job is hard enough right now.”
Owner Trey Grant thinks the anger towards school bus drivers is shocking.
“One of the personnel on the bus said they ‘couldn’t believe people are being rude to us. People are giving us the bird while we are driving on school property dropping off school children,'” Grant said. “I couldn’t believe it when she told me that. Any bus driver. If they come in with an I.D. that says they are a bus driver with any public school or private school, they are getting free house coffee anytime.”
Since the business opened in February 2020, Grant Coffee Company has been giving free coffee to first responders.
“We don’t pay for that. We have an open tab where the community pays for it,” he said. “We are adding bus drivers to that list, too.”
Grant said he built the business with a goal for it to be a place where anybody could feel comfortable being themselves.
He and his wife, Ashley Grant, have a special needs daughter and have chosen to dedicate each day of the week to employing someone with special needs to give them experience in the workforce.
Ashley Grant’s idea was to continue giving free coffee to school bus drivers and first responders for the foreseeable future.
