Richland Hub Coffee Makes a Global Impact -📍 Vancouver, WA

Did you know that some of the most delicious coffee you can find locally is funding the building of a medical center in rural Africa? RichlandHub Coffee Roasters works directly with cooperatives and small-scale coffee farmers in Africa, ensuring they receive a fair and stable income. With all profits returning to the place the coffee comes from, RichlandHub is more than just a place to buy coffee - it's a community working together to make a difference.

🗺️ Visit them at RichlandHub.com | Instagram | Facebook

👀 For pictures, video, and more, visit the episode page.

🎉 This episode also celebrates the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce

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Transcript

Richland Hub Coffee Makes a Global Impact -📍 Vancouver, WA

Adriana: I have a mission to try every single coffee shop in Clark County. Now when I tell people this, they usually say, “Too ambitious, can't be done. You'll end up being jittery for the rest of your life.” And you know what? This is extremely ambitious. It's a very long list, and there is no way I have gotten to the end of it yet.

But on my journey, I went into a place at 2420 Main Street in Vancouver called RichlandHub Café. And as soon as I walked in the door, I felt something was different. This was not like any other café I had been to, maybe ever. When I asked the baristas if they would tell me a little bit about this place, they told me that RichlandHub was started by a man named Bonny Mbuya who grew up in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania before moving to United States to join the Navy, and then coming to Vancouver to raise his family.

Bonny believes that we can do a social good at the same time as having delicious product, and so he created Richland Hub, which is a roastery based in East Vancouver and the cafe on Main Street. And one of the things that's so cool about RichlandHub is that all of their profits from the sales of the beans and anything else in the café go back to supporting the people who actually grow the beans in the first place.

In fact, Bonny 's currently helping build a medical center in the community where he gets the coffee beans because they don't have. And he knows that with our help, he can make it happen. I reached out to Bonny and he sat down with me to tell the story behind RichlandHub, and then he gave me a tour inside the roastery. You can find some behind the scenes photos and videos of this tour and the coffee beans in their various stages of roasting process through the episode page link in the show notes.

Not only does RichlandHub make amazing coffee, which in my opinion is a great service to our community, they host events and in the summertime they do something called the Richland Hub Experience, which celebrates African culture in Clark County and connects us even further. 

Now this is a pretty special episode because it shows that our purchasing power can make a global difference. I hope you enjoy this conversation almost as much as I enjoy drinking all of that delicious coffee. 

Welcome to I’m Into This Place, your deep dive into the local arts culture and heritage of Clark County. From fabulous new restaurants to quirky art installations to the historical sites you never even knew to look for, we’re inviting you along. Whether you're a Clark County connoisseur or just starting to get to know her, get ready to fall head over heels for this place we call home. I'm your host Adriana Baer, and I'm into this place. Let's go. 

Bonny, thank you for having us today. 

Bonny: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. 

Adriana: So why don't you bring us back? How or when did coffee come into your life? 

Bonny: That's easy. So, uh, actually I was born in Tanzania and I was born in Chaga Tribe. For those people who are familiar with some of the tribes in Tanzania.

So Chaga is one of the big tribes, northern part of Tanzania, and they're well known for growing coffee. And then, we have tradition, we go back in Kilimanjaro quite often throughout the year to help our grandparents and then visit. So throughout that experience, I was helping out to pick up coffee.

So every single family they have coffee farm. So we go there and then spend time with the grandparents and then help on a farm to pick up those cherry and then we process them locally and then roast them in a stove pan. And then we grind them. We make a cup of coffee every morning, so we still have a farm there. I come from very strong coffee family. 

Adriana: I wanna jump a little bit into that process that you talked about of roasting the beans every morning and making your cup of coffee, because here we are in your roastery. I can also go downtown, which I have many times to the cafe and you know, taste the beans. But I think that those of us who drink coffee every single day, we don't really think about where this all comes from, you know, how does this actual bean get into my house? 

Bonny: Right, right, right. Yeah. So before I came to United States, I didn't know all that. I knew all about the coffee, green coffee, the processing in a traditional way of making. I knew nothing about espresso machine. I knew nothing about drip.

All those things was foreign to me. So it works the other way, right? So the consumer here, they don't know the other side of that, right? So to keep it very simple, the coffee is grown on a tree. And the tree, it takes about roughly about three years to grow to be very productive tree. So in the meantime, you actually really have to take care of the tree.

If you take care of the one tree, you can produce a lot of cherries. And those cherries you peel the skin. Depends what process you go through. So there's uh, three common processes coffee usually go through once you pick those cherry. The most popular one in Africa in particular is dry and wash process.

Once the cherries picked from the farm and then you take those, you peel the skin. Unfortunately that process take a lot of water. Use a lot of water because they have to wash through those beans to get all the liquid and then make sure before they actually dry in  the sun, they're ready for that process.

So they recycle that water, it goes through back again, but it's a lot of water get involved. But it's good for the farmer 'cause they don't have to risk the coffee being to get molded, right? Because they're small scale, so they'll have all the technology, make sure they measure the moisture on in the process.

85% of the coffee producer, they're small farmers. Like they have like five acre, 10 maximum, or one or two, and then they cannot afford to take the all coffee through the milling process. So you'll find in one region or one area, they'll have one or two milling facility. And then the farmer, they have to come together to form what’s call co-ops.

So co-ops, what it is, is just group of farmers, they come together, say produce 1000 kilos, 2000 kilo. And then you bring to the co-op, and then once they get enough, they take to the milling. And in the milling facility, they'll charge the co-ops instead of charging individual farmers. And then if you’re a farmer, then you produce a hundred kilos, and then you expect to get, let's say $500, $600, whatever that amount, some portion of that goes to the milling to pay for it.

So that's how they do that. So they don't have to pay upfront. So it's very common practice in most African coffee producer. 

Adriana: So you're working with these small farms and these co-ops? 

Bonny: Yes. 

Adriana: And tell me about your relationship with these farmers. Because I know that one of your main goals with Richland Hub is making sure that the farmers can earn a stable income.

Bonny: Absolutely. 

Adriana: And that they and their families can rely on that money. 

Bonny: Absolutely. 

Adriana: And that the money goes back into empowering the people in this process, in especially women. 

Bonny: Correct. So in Africa, a lot of countries in Africa, vast majority of their contribution to the economy comes from agriculture.

And then, as I said earlier, a lot of those farmers, they're very micro, small farmers, they grow very small. 

Adriana: Mm-hmm. 

Bonny: Because that's how they can afford, how they can do. So women historically in Africa, heavily, heavily involved, wanna make sure the family get fed, they take care of all the activities.

Anything has to do with the family and men. They usually involved like protection and then you go out there and then make sure we bring the food for the family. So if you have two acre, three acre right next to your house and then you grow some food or something, you're gonna sell, guess who's gonna heavily get involved?

The women, because they are always home. They take care of the family, they make sure the family eat. And if we have a farm, they have to take care of the farm and the family. And then when we get to the commercial part of it, and then we sell this coffee. And then for us to enjoy here, we have to think about who actually get involved.

If women, they do that, and by default, 'cause it's a tradition, it doesn't eliminate the fact that they deserve the credit for what the work they did. Right? So that part has been always overlooked. It's like, hey. This is what you do and in what you do. It's this how much value you bring to the rest of the community and the global.

So your coffee grow here, but it travel miles and miles. Somebody is get to enjoy. Either you are hanging out or you have your meeting at the coffee shop, you get to enjoy the cup of coffee. And these people, they don't expect you as a consumer to be feeling guilty because of that. Not all it is is just to understand like there's a connection. There is not here. There is no, like, we have to understand there's a connection between this person who work up in the morning and then grow coffee and the consumer. So initially we started bringing this green coffee from the farmers and we sell to the roasts and the roaster will roast it and sell to the consumer.

But later on I noticed like this. It's not really accomplished the goal we had set for us to be able to connecting and close that gap between the farmers and the consumer. Right? Because it's a roast. Once you sell the 132 pound of green coffee to the roaster. They can do whatever they want. They can make up a story, they can do it.

Nobody knows, right? So that's the reason we started retail. We open our coffee shop and we have online space, and we try the best we can. Not just me. The staff we have, they're incredible. They try to educate and tell people, oh, just be very informative to tell people like who we are, what reason we have existing. People coming in, they don't see as just another coffee shop because we are not just another coffee shop, right?

We have cashews, we have honey, we have cacao. 

Adriana: I have tried all of them and, and they are very, very good. I think that's really interesting that it's really about closing the loop 

Bonny: Correct. 

Adriana: between the person who's, you know, tending this cherry, 

Bonny: right

Adriana: that then becomes this cup of coffee that then creates connection for me and the person I'm sitting across the table from that then, you know, it goes back and around and around and around.

And that's one of the things that I'm so interested in about your business model is that there's many touch points in this circle that you're, that you're wanting to focus on and bring to light. You mentioned Project Sharity, and I wanna hear more about that. And I love that you say sharity, not charity, 

Bonny: Right.

Adriana: And also, you know, a key initiative that you're working on is building this medical clinic in the region in which the people who are absolutely making the, you know, growing the coffee live and work. So tell us about those programs. 

Bonny: You have to see that you are part of this platform and institution we're building where we are all together to be able to make a difference somewhere. 

Adriana: Hmm. 

Bonny: Either it's direct or indirect. We don't take or accept any donation. It just through your purchase, we are able to facilitate this to make this work. The medical clinic, that is our first project on the Project Sharity.

So Project Sharity is directly tied to our business model. And then as long as the business exists, this project is gonna be going on and on and on and on. So the, the project we are doing in Mbeya in particular, we purchase coffee from these farmers in Mbeya. And while I was there, one of the things really touched me because even though I was born in, in Africa and then uh, in, in Tanzania, I've seen it all.

But what really touched me is like, this farmer, this family, and they go about the business every day to grow this cacao, coffee, all this product we enjoy, and then their life is not getting any better. Because they have to worry about other things, you know, on top of day-to-day expenses for your family.

So the medical is one of them. The schools, it's all those things. Infrastructure. So this particular project we're doing for a clinic is in this location where there's almost 25-30,000 people. They don't even have a single medical clinic. A lot of people in Africa, the population is growing. To not having a single medical clinic, that is not how people should live, right? So we thought like this is the first thing we can do. So we started this so almost two years ago, and then it's just step by step by step. In the meantime, we continue to do small impact like you go to school and then with kids sitting on the floor while the school session is on, we can pay for maybe a couple chairs and then they get to sit on in the school.

So those kind of small stuff. So I get to see this when I go just pick up coffee and cashews and cacao and then make me feel a little bit responsible to do something, even if it's small. Maybe it'll be one or two people from that community will help somebody out somewhere someday. 

Adriana: The idea of building a whole medical clinic for a community of 30,000 people 

Bonny: Correct.

Adriana: Is only 55,000 American dollars. 

Bonny: Right, right. 

Adriana: Which shows us that truly my three to five to $20 that I'm spending at the cafe actually can have an impact on the future of building this building or buying chairs for the school, or absolutely helping with one or two projects. 

Bonny: So our main, main job also is to make sure people take time to understand why we're here, you know, as a society just here in Clark County or outside of that.

We are connected. We have so much in common than different. If the community and their support and the customer take a little bit of moment to learn more about us, it will be really appreciated because that will make clear, you know, why we really feel like the customer, the support, they're part of this. You know, we are not here just alone to be able to do this.

If we can bring as many customer and supporter to be part of this, it would be a great achievement for us. And that's what we want. Because together we can go further than just individual or just Richmond hub staff. Is the entire community. That's the goal. And this is just like a platform, one big platform where we get to enjoy coffee and all this product, but underneath is something really bigger than any of us.

Adriana: I love that. I think that's true here in this moment. And we're talking about RichlandHub, but also in general in our community, right? Taking a moment to get to know each other, to ask questions and say, “What is this? Why are we here?”

Bonny: Right? 

Adriana: Um, it's, it's really valuable and you can learn amazing stories. I literally went in, just walked into the café because I wanted to try a new spot. 

Bonny: Right. 

Adriana: I had no idea. And I started kind of, I, I went, oh. And as I, I think a lot of people do. We go, wait a minute, where am I? What is this place? And then suddenly finding out, oh my gosh, this, this goes deep, deep, deep, deep, deep.

Not just a delicious cup of coffee. Which it is. I am a bit of a coffee snob. And your coffee blew me away. 

Bonny: Thank you. 

Adriana: Um, but also just the story behind it. And, and something that I think is really unique in this area. There isn't another spot like yours, too. So really leaning in and asking those questions.

I think that's beautifully said. So there's a few ways that people can enjoy the products that you have and sell. And one of them is of course to go to the cafe, 

Bonny: Correct. 

Adriana: which is on Main Street in uptown Vancouver. You have a coffee subscription. So most of our listeners are in Clark County, but some of them are not. And I know that they're interested in how they can, you know, get these products too, so I wanna really make sure that, I shout out that if you go onto your website, right, you can get a coffee subscription and there's a 15% discount for that subscription and it gets mailed to you and you can even get it if you are in Clark County.

Maybe you don't wanna drive to Main Street Vancouver to get your coffee, it'll just come to you. So, so make sure to check that out. In just a minute, we'll ask Bonny what place he's really into these days. But first, you can find pictures of everything we talked about today by visiting I'm into this place.com. 

And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share even more behind the scenes photos and info about the amazing organizations in our community. And tell you about upcoming events. 

So what place or organization are you really into these days? 

Bonny: So I'm always just out and about to try to explore because this place has so much to offer. It was really eye-opening for me when, um, I joined the Chamber of Commerce, the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. You got to meet people from different business.

You know, some people, they've done exactly what you're doing. They already have tons of experience, tons of, uh, knowledge they can share. And then all these people, they're more than happy to help. I met really great people I could never met otherwise. We created that sense of community, you feel like you're not alone. Because business is tough.

You can look from outside. It looks all fancy and every, it's not easy, especially small business. So the Chamber actually build a platform where you get to meet these people. So it's, it's been really, really great. It works really good for any type of business and great business really, to connect and networking and then learn from one another, and then, yeah.

Adriana: all right. Shout out Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for what you do. 

Bonny: Yeah, absolutely. 

Adriana: Yeah, we love them. Awesome. Thank you. Let's take a little walk. 

Bonny: Absolutely. Shall, yeah. You wanna 

Adriana: take, is it okay if I take some pictures?

If you're curious what your coffee beans look like before they're even roasted, head on down to the show notes where you'll find a link to the episode page. There. I've posted a bunch of photos. End video of my tour behind the scenes at the Richland Hub Roastery. I also wanna give a special thank you to the crew at Richland Hub Cafe who put up with my seemingly endless questions about everything that's going on there.

 And now is the time of the show where we get to hear from you. This is our Community Voices segment where you call in and let us know your favorite places in local arts culture, and Heritage. Community Voices is sponsored by Johnson Bixby, their financial planning and portfolio management team combines technical expertise with genuine care, helping you make informed confident decisions at all stages of life and plan for life's possibilities.

Advisory Services by Johnson Bixby, SEC, registered securities through private client services member Finra, SIPC.

Guest: Hi. Hello. My name is Emmanuel. Eman for short. And I really like the Columbia Play Center because they come to our schools and they let us play with their supplies and it's very fun to play with. And they also come to different kinds of events and they have like different things you can do, like building competitions and things like that. Thank you for listening. 

Guest: I am Greg Flaka and I'm into Feeding the Hungry and those who need help in this county. We have a great organization, FISH of Vancouver, and our volunteer coordinator and board chair is Beth Lee. They do great work at FISH of Vancouver.

Adriana:  We'd love to hear from you. What are your favorite spots in Clark County? Who really deserves a shout out? Give us a call and leave a message or send us a voice note via email. All the details on how to do that are in the show notes.

I'm into This place is produced and hosted by me, Adriana Baer. Editing by Chris Martin Studios. We were recorded live today at the Richland Hub Roastery. You can find out more about them and us at, I'm into this place.com. See you out there!