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Former QC bean counter now grinds them instead

BY MARK MORAN Tribune Staff Writer

Sandy Prue has always liked coffee as more than an average cup of Joe.

“Growing up I loved the smell of coffee, but it was not until I did a 126-mile relay walk that I started drinking it,” she recalled. “And I lived in Washington State and there are coffee shops on every corner.”

“And I’ve probably gone to almost all of them and I’ve probably tried all the different kinds of coffee kind of searching for that perfect cup of coffee,” she said.

Now Prue lives in Queen Creek and has turned that love of coffee and the quest for the perfect cup into a local business called Fill Your Cup of Coffee.

“I’m a very positive person and I wanted to put a spin on ‘fill your cup with gratitude,’” she said of her inspiration for the company name. Prue came to Arizona not long before the pandemic brought the economy to a screeching halt and with it, her plans to return to the workplace.

Prue decided it was time to go back to work but not in the same field where she spent her career as “an accountant for 30-some years.”

“I decided I am done being an accountant and I want to do something different and not work for someone else and work for myself,” Prue said. “I was kind of done doing taxes and working those long hours. And I love coffee and I thought I could sell it really easily.”

So, she went from counting beans to roasting and selling them.

“I went and researched local roasters in the area around here and I found one and loved it and that’s how I started,” Prue said.

Currently, Fill Your Cup of Coffee is solely an online shop with no brick-andmortar store yet. Sandy Prue owns Fill Your Cup of Coffee, an online-only Queen Creek business that she opened after leaving a 30-year career as an accountant. (Special to the Tribune)

So Prue is hitting the road every weekend and bringing her product directly to local customers.

She wants them to smell, taste and ask questions about the super-smooth, highend java, rather than just hope people stumble across her website and buy a bag of coffee beans or the other products she sells online.

“I go to markets and I have my coffee in Sip and Shop Arizona at the San Tan Mall, and I sell my bags of coffee in there.” Prue said. “I go to all the farmers markets.”

That’s where Prue thinks she stands to make the most headway, handing out samples to shoppers who may be more apt to try something new when they are at a market and more likely to make an impulse buy, especially on something like gourmet coffee or tea.

“So, I have been to the Apache Junction farmers market, the Mesa swap meet, the Vintage and Vino market at the Queen Creek horse arena three times, a car booth sale in Maricopa. I’ve done one in Scottsdale,” she said. “So, I go to wherever the markets are and I see which one does well, and if it does well, I keep going back.”

Prue said people who try her coffee and like it at the farmers markets are driving sales on the website.

“My philosophy is that if I hand out samples and usually if they sample it, they will buy a bag. And if they buy it and they like it ,they will go on my website and order it again,” Prue said.

Prue estimates that, depending on the market, she sells between 10 and 40 bags of coffee per day in person, far outpacing her current online sales.

Selling the coffee locally and in person also allows her to save shipping costs, which she said, have become prohibitive to the point that she eliminated the shipping fees for buyers online.

In the new year, however, she said those fees will be added into the price, which currently ranges between $13 and $15 on the website. Prue said she does have a mission beyond simply making a profit, adding that she has always been driven by wanting to be a good community citizen.

“5% of our net profit each month will go to an animal rescue organization.” Prue said. “Each month there will be a vote for where the proceeds will be donated. Volunteering for 9 years at an animal rescue organization, my goal is to continue giving back to the animals in need.”

Prue’s business uses only Fair-Trade coffee, which means that the beans have been audited throughout the supply chain to meet certain sustainability and labor standards.

“By buying Fair Trade we always know where the coffee is grown, who grew it,

how they are treated and the benefits they receive through direct trade,” Prue said. “This helps farmers improve their lives, families and community lives.

Prue said coffee shops and retail outlets that sell large volumes of coffee often roast their beans in huge vats at high temperatures to keep up with the demand, but which can result in a bitter beverage.

Prue said her supplier’s approach to not only roasting, but also washing the beans, guards against that.

“When you have a green coffee bean, before it can be roasted you have to wash it, which takes out some of the impurities of it, and if you wash it more it takes out that acidity,” she said.

Prue said her beans are washed seven times before they are roasted very carefully.

“If the bean is over-roasted you will get that more acidic flavor,” Prue said. Fill Your Cup of Coffee offers a variety of coffee blends that owner Sandy Prue hopes will satisfy the most discriminating tastes. (Special to the Tribune)

Prue’s goal is to eventually have a brick-and-mortar location in Queen Creek, where she can provide a welcoming space for people and offer them “that perfect cup of coffee and put an extra pep in your step.” 

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INSIDE Eastmark to graduate its first senior class

An edition of the East Valley Tribune FREE FREE | QueenCreekTribune.com QueenCreekTribune.com Sunday, May 15, 2022

BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

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Queen Creek officials are addressing citizens’ questions and concerns about LG Energy Solution’s plans to build a lithium battery plant as town and San Tan Valley residents remain divided over the South Korean manufacturer’s facility. The barren 650.5 acre site at Ironwood and Germann roads was sold last month at a state Land Department auction for $84.4 million to ES America, which is partnering with LG Energy on the $1.4 billion Queen Creek project. That project is part of LG Energy’s plan to invest more than $4.5 billion in an expansion of its American operations by 2025 as it tries to top its Chinese rival as the largest supplier

Just over two years ago, Adelin Longhurst was enjoying her high school in her home state of Kentucky. At the time, she had no idea she would soon make an impact on a much smaller Queen Creek Unified high school in East Mesa. But when her family made the move to Arizona, she found Eastmark High School. She enjoyed the small student population that the school still has in just its third year of existence. Adelin wanted to become involved. COMMUNITY........................18 BUSINESS ..............................20 OPINION.................................23 SPORTS...................................25 CLASSIFIEDS........................26 Queen Creek football seeks state dominance. of lithium batteries for electric vehicles, creating 10,000 new jobs in the United States. A month before the State Land deal, LG Energy picked its existing plant in Holland, Michigan, for a $1.7 billion expansion that it said would create 1,200 jobs. Some predict the Queen Creek plant will create far more see EASTMARK page 10 see LITHIUM page 6 Debate continues over QC lithium plant BY KATHLEEN STINSON Tribune Staff Writer

ghurst was enjoying her high school in her home state of Kentucky. At the time, she had no idea she would soon make an impact on a much smaller Queen Creek Unified high school in East But when her family made the move to Arizona, she found Eastmark High School. She enjoyed the small student population that the school still has in Adelin wanted to become involved. Eastmark Student Council members, from left, Becca Hinton, Sydni Lawson, Grace Foote, Mylie Stones, Esther Robinson, Amelia Barton and Adelin Longhurst have helped establish traditions that they hope will live on well beyond graduation on Wednesday, May 18, when they become the school’s first graduating class. (Dave Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer) izens’ questions and concerns about LG Energy Solution’s plans to build a lithium battery plant as town and San Tan Valley residents remain divided over the South Korean manufacturer’s facility. Amid yet another snafu by the Pinal County Elections Department, at least one of the three Queen Creek Town Council seats could be headed for a November run-off following the results of Tuesday’s primary. With some ballots countywide still being counted as of the Tribune’s print 䌀栀愀渀最椀渀最 琀栀攀 眀愀礀 䄀洀攀爀椀挀愀 眀愀琀挀栀攀猀 吀嘀 匀琀漀渀攀䌀爀攀攀欀䘀甀爀渀椀琀甀爀攀⸀挀漀洀

deadline Friday, results from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Officer showed incumbent Dawn Oliphant with 27% of the vote; Bryan McClure, 25%; Travis Padilla, 25% and Matt McWilliams, 23%. The Pinal County results had Oliphant with 27%; McWilliams, 25%; McClure, 24% and Padilla, 23%. According to the latest available data, Pinal reported that a total 2,559 ballots had been cast in its portion of Queen

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Creek while the Maricopa portion saw 10,482 ballots.The threshold for an outright win involves dividing the total number of votes by the number of available seats, then dividing by 2. As of Friday, the whole numbers put Padilla ahead of McWilliams, 6,100-5874.But the math may be further compliBY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer Pinal snafus muddy outcome of QC council racesINSIDE NEWS .................... 4 Sunday, August 7, 2022 FREE | QueenCreekTribune.com An edition of the East Valley Tribune Council discusses QC road median headache. see ELECTIONS page 6 COMMUNITY........................16 BUSINESS ..............................18 OPINION.................................20 SPORTS...................................22 GET OUT.................................23 CLASSIFIEDS........................26 SPORTS...............22 QC dad, son cherish last season together. BUSINESS...........18 QC women run unique Lego store. East Valley municipalities in the last fiscal year took advantage of unanticipated general fund revenue increases to make big additional payments on their debt to pensions earned by thousands of retired police officers and firefighters. But Tempe, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Scottsdale still have a long way to go before they erase their huge unfunded liabilities. Those five municipalities still owe a total $1.4 billion for pensions covering 955 retired firefighters, 1,471 retired cops and see PENSION page 10 QC an exception amid big pension debt BY PAUL MARYNIAK Tribune Executive Editor The plane is on the way A jet engine may seem a bit of an unusual sight at a high school, but a plane may soon be on the way at the new American Leadership Academy campus in east Mesa. The sprawling 223,000-square-foot charter school is taking a new approach to vocational education, as you’ll read on page 8. (Enrique Garcia/Tribune Contributor)

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