FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — Each week, Marine Corps veteran Sam Floyd is making deliveries.
For some, it's simply bags of coffee, but for others, it means a whole lot more.
Floyd started Operation Coffee in 2017 and he says at the time he was struggling with his mental health, as well as working to integrate back into civilian life.
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However, that all changed when a friend asked him one simple question.
"She asked me what I liked to do," Floyd said. "And I basically very sarcastically said well, I guess I like to drink coffee."
From there, he started exploring coffee roasting and found his new mission.
"The whole idea of Operation Coffee is just to start conversations," Floyd said. "And it's important because we need to reach out even when we don't feel like it."
Jason Turner is an Army veteran and the Executive Director of Salute the Troops in Fond du Lac, an organization that helps veterans run small businesses.
Turner says Sam has also helped him open up himself, and with other veterans as well.
"You see somebody else doing it and it makes you a little more comfortable to kind of do the same thing," Turner said.
He says for some veterans taking that first step can be a challenge.
"We were taught that you just bottle that stuff up and repress it," Turner said.
With the personal growth of each life Sam has touched, professional growth of his business has followed.
"We are in Woodman's," Floyd said. "We are in 12 Festival Foods, Piggly Wiggly down in Kewaskum and the Fisher House in Wisconsin."
Sam says he will continue his mission helping each person, one cup of coffee at a time.
Floyd has a shop in Kaukauna were he now roasts his coffee and hopes to one day open up a cafe that will allow people to stop in and enjoy their favorite coffee.
