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SIPS Coffee brings cancer awareness efforts to Steelers game

By Gwen Sour 3 min read

PARKERSBURG -- SIPS Coffee's efforts to support breast cancer screenings took owner Jen Allman to Pittsburgh, where the business was invited to serve fans outside a Steelers game.

For Allman, who has twice been diagnosed with breast cancer, the invitation offered an opportunity to bring her fundraising and awareness efforts to a larger audience.

But when the email first arrived, she was not convinced it was real.

"I just out of the blue, I got an email, and I read it, and I was like, 'Oh, this is spam. This isn't real,'" Allman said.

After researching the sender and finding his affiliation with the Steelers, Allman agreed to a phone call. She learned the organization was looking for food and beverage trucks connected to cancer awareness or fundraising for screenings.

Allman said a Steelers representative found a story about SIPS' fundraising in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. Her business was one of two trucks selected to participate after several options were presented to the team's marketing director, she said.

The invitation came with limited time to prepare. With some employees already scheduled off and others becoming sick, Allman turned to volunteers, including a longtime friend and a West Virginia University marketing student.

The group arrived around 7:30 a.m. and set up outside the stadium next to a VIP tent. Heavy rain continued through the event, but Allman said fans still came out to enjoy the activities and visit the truck.

"Even in the rain, you know, people were out and just having a good time, and it was pretty exciting and fun," she said.

Some customers bought beverages and made additional donations to support SIPS' fundraising for the Camden Clark Foundation's Pink Mammogram Fund, Allman said.

The fund provides free mammograms and associated diagnostic services to qualifying uninsured or underinsured patients in the Mid-Ohio Valley, according to the foundation.

Allman said SIPS raised $1,800 during its first year of fundraising and $3,100 during its second. This year, she hopes to raise $6,000.

The business contributes a percentage of sales from its Tata Colada drink to the fund throughout the year, with an increased fundraising push in October. Customers also can donate through a Venmo QR code available at the truck.

The effort stems from Allman's own experience with breast cancer, which also helped inspire her to start the business.

Allman said she was first diagnosed in 2020 and underwent treatment and surgery. As she approached five years since that diagnosis, she learned in 2025 that the cancer had returned.

She again underwent surgery and treatment. Allman said she is now cancer-free and participating in a clinical trial that will continue for the next two years. Both diagnoses were stage 1, she said.

"I feel like just it's super important for people to get screened," Allman said.

After her first experience with cancer, Allman began reconsidering what she wanted from her career. She wanted work that would make her happy each day and decided to try operating a coffee truck with support from her husband, Eric Allman.

"I think cancer definitely changed both of us," she said.

What began as an opportunity to try something different became a business through which Allman could help others access screenings and share her experience.

She said customers have told her they scheduled mammograms because of something she posted or said.

"I've had customers tell me that because of things that I've posted or said, they have gotten a mammogram," Allman said. "And so like things like that just make me happy, and that's the whole reason I do it."

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