NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Nashville coffee shop that soft opened less than 2 weeks ago is donating a portion of its sales to help families affected by a deadly earthquake in Colombia.
Alma Viva Café owners Sarah Gallego and her brother moved from Colombia to Nashville five years ago.
"We thought that it was like a good place to start over, to try to find better opportunities, and that's why I came to Nashville," Gallego said.
The café, which has been open only 12 days, was founded on the idea of bringing Colombian culture to Music City.
"The coffee is not just the drink, but it's the connections that you can make around the conversations," Gallego said.
A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Monday. Rescue crews are still searching through rubble as the death toll rises past 200 people.
Now, with their homeland facing tragedy, Gallego is using the café as a way to help.
"Even though we just opened it, it's kind of hard to start a new business. It was the way to help our people because we know that they need it," Gallego said.
Gallego and her family are donating a portion of this week's sales to 3 organizations helping people in El Chocó, one of the hardest-hit regions.
"Like a lot of people looking for their family, their friends, they don't have any place to stay since that happened. So that's how we decided this week to donate 5% of our sales... for the all the communities and families that are affected by this earthquake," Gallego said.
Gallego is encouraging the community to visit the café and spread the word.
"My invitation is that if you wanna help all the people that is affected in Colombia, the best way that you can do is just come to visit us, get a coffee, get a breakfast, or even like, sharing this information with somebody else," Gallego said.
Alma Viva Café is celebrating its grand opening this weekend and will donate 5% of all sales through Sunday to earthquake relief efforts in Colombia. The café is located at 130 19th Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37203.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Patsy.Montesinos@NewsChannel5.com
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