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Tara Hunsaker
Tara Hunsaker: Brewing Kindness and Compassion Through Coffee in Helena

 

On a crisp Helena morning, the line at SheBrews Coffee often curls around the corner like a ritual in motion. Car windows roll down, steam drifts into the air, and a familiar voice rings out from the drive-thru window. For locals grabbing their morning coffee in Helena, this is usually where the day begins. That quick moment at the window feels like more than a caffeine fix; it’s a small act of connection served fresh by Tara Hunsaker, a nominee for Helena’s best server. 

“If I can turn one person’s day around, that’s why I do what I do,” Tara said. “My customers are what drive me to stay in business like this.” 

For nearly two decades, Tara has served coffee and compassion in equal measure. Known by many as “the coffee mom,” she carries a warmth that runs deeper than the morning rush. Tara’s story is one of lessons learned, grace received, and kindness returned tenfold, each chapter reinforcing her unshakable care for her crew and the community. 

Where Compassion Began

 

Tara isn’t originally from Helena, but it’s the only place that’s ever truly felt like home. Her family moved here when she was six, after living in Sunburst, Montana, and later Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She can still picture her quiet neighborhood filled with kids playing in the streets and mountain silhouettes framing the landscape in every direction. 

“Everybody had kids our age,” she remembered with a smile. “As a kid, you knew to come home when the streetlights came on. It was that old-school kind of childhood. No cell phones, no gaming systems.” 

Her parents, both lifelong educators, modeled kindness as a daily act from a young age. From them, she learned that patience, empathy, and a sense of caring have a greater impact than judgment. “They always taught us to be kind and compassionate,” Tara reflected. 

Those early lessons became the backbone of how she treats people today, whether she’s interacting with her team, greeting customers, or simply showing up for others.

Grace, Growth, and Giving Back

 

That early foundation of compassion grew stronger during the most challenging chapter of Tara’s life. 

Several years ago, she made some life-altering choices that led to legal trouble. She braced for judgment and distance, but instead, she was met with grace. The Helena community didn’t turn away; they leaned in. Friends, neighbors, and mentors asked how they could help. They offered second chances and the steady encouragement she needed to start fresh. 

That response changed everything. “Everybody deserves second chances,” Tara said. “Regardless of the mistakes we make, that doesn’t define who we will become in the future.” 

Helena became her place of growth and rebuilding, a place where forgiveness felt tangible. With support from resources like the Center for Mental Health, Tara regained her footing. She later went on to teach classes to law enforcement on understanding mental illness, volunteering at fundraisers, and being the kind of person who reaches out first. 

Today, you continue to see her gratitude turned into action. Tara loves how working for a small business like SheBrews means she can easily say yes to lending a hand where it’s needed most. Whether it’s sponsoring local sports teams or donating to the Lewis and Clark Humane Society, that freedom to help directly makes her work feel personal and rooted in purpose. 

A few years ago, Tara personally partnered with her favorite tattoo shop to raise money for Project Semicolon—a mental health and suicide prevention effort that reminds people their story isn’t over yet. 

Each one of Tara’s gestures is a tribute to the community that once rallied to help her reclaim her strength.

Leading with Love: A Mentor In Motion

 

The experiences of grace and growth she lived through became the blueprint for Tara’s leadership as the manager at SheBrews. 

Coffee first entered Tara’s life as a job, but it evolved into a calling defined by connection. “I’ve been in the coffee industry for 18 years,” she noted. “For a little while, I sat in an office and hated every single second of it. It’s just not who I am.” 

Inside the four walls of the coffee stand, Tara is cultivating something far greater than a team of baristas. Her crew is mostly young women from the local high schools and Carroll College, whom she affectionately calls “her girls.” They see her as a mentor who balances humor with accountability and expects effort without perfection. Mistakes aren’t met with punishment, but with patience. Tara believes every error is a chance to learn, not a reason for shame; the kind of lessons that spill over into life itself. 

“I think shifting your mindset to see those experiences as opportunities for growth and learning is a game changer,” Tara emphasized. 

Her guidance is steady but soft, rooted in trust and joy. The result is a workplace that feels like family, and a place employees and customers alike want to return. “I have girls begging me for hours to come in and work,” she laughed. “Every one of my college girls who left last year is back for the summer.” 

Coffee, she realized, is just the medium; people are the purpose.

The Ripple Effect of Kindness

 

Kindness, for Tara, isn’t just the absence of cruelty; it’s the act of creating space for others to feel safe being themselves. It’s wholehearted, genuine acceptance. “It takes more energy to spew hate than it does to smile,” she said. 

Her bright hair and colorful tattoos are reminders that happiness, individuality, and self-love belong everywhere. “I don’t look at the next person and judge them. Everyone’s welcome,” she shared. “I was raised to find inner joy in everybody.” 

By embodying that philosophy, she creates an atmosphere filled to the brim with fun and authenticity. Her crew sings along to the radio, dances between orders, and greets newcomers like friends. She knows every regular by name, remembers whose kid just graduated, and easily embraces her role as the epicenter of positivity for her team and customers daily. 

Tara keeps things moving with a grin, watching each exchange ripple outward. She thrives in that place. 

The culture she creates doesn’t stop when the shift ends. The young women who work alongside her carry that kindness and acceptance into their own unique corners of Helena. “Those nine girls go and spread it to nine more people,” she said. “And, you know, eventually it’s just love.” 

Through her work and the way she moves through life, Tara radiates the core message that kindness is power. It’s gentle, unwavering, and transformative, a force that returns to you the more it’s shared. 

Finding Peace Beyond the Pour

 

While work is such a significant aspect of her life, Tara is intentional about balance. She and her husband share one grounding rule: “Home doesn’t come to work. Work doesn’t come home,” she explained. “It works out really well for us.” 

Outside of work, she finds peace and taps into her own inner joy through Helena’s landscape and events. She enjoys hiking up Mount Helena with her family, catching the rodeo at the Last Chance Stampede and Fair, spending mornings at Spring Meadow Lake, and watching those beautiful Montana sunsets shed their vibrant colors over the mountains and across the valley. 

When winter arrives, the pace slows, the air turns crisp, and a blanket of snow settles over town, filling her days with a quiet serenity she savors. “Helena’s like a big, warm, fuzzy blanket on a cold day,” she said. “It’s home. It’s a safe place to be.” 

That same sense of comfort follows her through the simple, everyday rhythms of life. She loves spontaneous reunions at the grocery store, browsing her favorite local shops like Mae & June Vintage Market, or exchanging a wave at a stoplight. 

The ease of those moments is what ties her story to the heart of Helena and to the people who make it feel like home. 

Connection in Every Cup: A Living Exchange

 

The relationship between Tara and Helena is deeply reciprocal, a living exchange of support, openheartedness, and resilience. What she pours into her work and her relationships comes back through the people she serves, mentors, and laughs with along the way. 

Tara’s story mirrors the essence of Helena itself, a place that has a way of restoring people from the inside out. “Living in that shell of not loving life—forget it.” She added, “Come to Helena and learn how to love.” 

The Helena she describes is a place where connection matters more than appearances, and forgiveness isn’t weakness but courage. Her days are not just filled with the hum of the espresso machine but with stories and small moments that shape the community. 

Every smile through the drive-thru window, every second chance given or received, becomes another thread in the fabric of this town. And through it all, Tara Hunsaker continues to do what she does best: brew kindness, one cup at a time.

Faces of Helena