A cafe plays a significant role on a university's campus, providing a place for students to study and supplying them with the caffeine needed to push through one class after another. When the campus cafe at Millersville University closed in the summer of 2021, it left a void.

The school's administration wanted students to have more influence on campus spaces and more leadership opportunities, so it launched a challenge in January 2022 for teams to design their own cafe. Several teams of both graduate and undergraduate students submitted original concepts for the new space, which were reviewed by a panel of judges consisting of school faculty, other students and alumni with experience in the hospitality industry.

The challenge called for students to describe the type of food they envisioned at their cafe, as well as who the eatery would support and how it would serve as a magnet for student life. The judges narrowed down the dozens of submissions in the first round to just 10, and in the second round, students were asked to create a short YouTube video to sell their idea. Only Millersville students voted in the second round, which produced the top three finalists. The finalists then presented to the judges "Shark Tank" style.

The winner of the challenge was a team of four students with an idea for a cafe with a theme centered around sustainability: Evergreen Cafe. The students worked with the school's dining services throughout the summer, ordering furniture and equipment, painting the walls and planning to install a plant wall in time to officially open the cafe at the beginning of the fall semester. "The cafe is so gratifying to walk into, and it's always packed," said Marc Tomljanovich, dean of Millersville's Lombardo College of Business. "It's fulfilling a need on campus for both food and community."

Evergreen Cafe will provide more employment opportunities for students than the previous campus cafe. Each semester, a different student will fill a position in the cafe for management, marketing and data analytics. "We wanted more than just two students a year getting hands-on experience as managers," said Tomljanovich. "This way, students get experience with leadership, hiring, solving human resource issues and supply chain issues."

The cafe has plans to improve on its theme of sustainability and integrate environmentally friendly measures, such as eliminating its use of straws and allowing students to bring their own cups in to be filled with coffee. Evergreen Cafe is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is located in the lower level of Gordinier Hall.