From left, All-American Coffee owner-operators Alicia Hayes and Stefany Magera serve the first drink of the morning Wednesday, June 9, 2021, to their mom and “silent partner” Susan Roberts. The new coffee truck can be found where it’s announced on Facebook and other social media.

ENTERPRISE — America may not grow coffee but Americans sure drink it, and a new mobile coffee truck is capitalizing on that fact: All-American Coffee can be found parked in many locations in Wallowa County.

“We are at the Elks Lodge some days, here (at the Ponderosa Motel) some days, the lake during the summer,” said Stefany Magera, one of the owner-operators. “We try to be mobile, like at the clinic, at the Chieftain, at the school, where we were just now making a mobile delivery for the teachers.”

“We’ll be at the Joseph High School this afternoon,” said Alicia Hayes, her sister and partner. “We’re fully mobile, so we go wherever we’re needed.”

She said where they locate each day is flexible.

“Some businesses ask us, ‘Hey, you want to come park here today?’ With the marina, they have a contract with the state, so we’re kind of a subcontractor. … That’s our only contract,” she said.

Although their coffee is imported, most of their customers aren’t. That’s reflected in the All-American Coffee name for the business.

“It’s because we serve everybody,” Hayes said.

Operating since late May, the sisters had the truck built in Portland to their specifications. A company there takes old UPS and FedEx trucks, breaks them down and rebuilds to new owners’ specifications. Magera found the company online and ordered their truck in April.

“We had all of our equipment ready to go,” Hayes said. “We were busy buying while the truck was being built. When it got here, our husbands and friends, we put everything in.”

Husbands James Hayes and Sam Magera, as well as longtime friends who operate plumbing and electric businesses, helped out.

And then there’s Mom — Susan Roberts.

“She is our biggest fan and our biggest supporter,” Hayes said.

The sisters’ daughters also are involved.

“We also did this so we could have our girls with us in the summertime,” Hayes said. “My nieces started a little lemonade stand last year.”

She has a daughter going into sixth grade, while her nieces are going into the fifth and eighth grades.

“They’re pretty excited because it’s something fun for them,” Hayes said. “My nieces are little entrepreneurs. They do all kinds of little businesses. We’ve got earrings and necklaces hanging there that my oldest niece, Parker, makes. She’s already sold three pairs of earrings in the past couple of weeks.”

She said her brother-in-law, Jerry Hayes, did the graphics and signboards for the truck.

“It’s a family affair all around,” she said.

Like many businesses across the country, All-American Coffee was hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. They planned to get it started in early 2020, but then the restrictions of the pandemic hit.

“We thought we’ll just table this for a little while and see how things play out,” Hayes said. “This past January, we were talking and said it just feels right, so we did. We pooled as much money as we could and Mom pooled out of her retirement to give us the extra we needed to get the truck.”

As a result, Roberts is being included in the workforce.

“That’s why she’s hanging around all the time. Mom’s our ‘silent partner,’ I guess,” Hayes said. “I’m slowly training her for our big events.”

She already has plans for the “big events.”

“When we do events, Mom will be with us,” Hayes said. “Our first event we’re going to do is the (Mountain High) Broncs and Bulls (June 26). That’ll be our big test to see how we handle the big events. It should be exciting.”

There are still a couple improvements they want to make to the truck. As Roberts noted, they need a new generator.

“The generator’s really loud. They need a new generator — a quiet one,” she said. “This’ll get all the people out of the motel. It’s why the motel invited them over. Not to wake the people up, but so they’d have something when they do get up.”

Where they’re located each day is usually announced on social media.

“Facebook and social media have been amazing,” Hayes said. “We put there where we’re going to be and people come. Or, some see the truck and follow us until we park, so it works out pretty good.”

But the sisters aren’t worried about business slowing too much.

“It has been fantastic, absolutely fantastic,” Hayes said. “Everywhere we’ve gone, even up to the marina — we have a contract with the marina for the summer — people are, like, ‘Oh, there’s coffee. Let’s get some.’ So it’s been overwhelmingly wonderful.”