Meet Khea Pollard Founder of Cafe X Where Coffee Beans Have a Mission to Brew
Meet Khea Pollard Founder of Cafe X Where Coffee Beans Have a Mission to Brew
Meet Khea Pollard, Founder and CEO of Cafe X: By Any Beans Necessary in Barrio Logan San Diego. Khea's commitment to supporting the Black community grow generational wealth and increase economic mobility is second to none.
Check out this feature For the Love of the Black Community in San Diego Magazine, which talks more about how Khea took her public service passion and engagement to another level when coffee beans and her mission collided to create Café X: By Any Beans Necessary, a Black, mother-daughter owned, cooperative coffee shop with her mother Cynthia Ajani (pictured below), built to support generational wealth building in the Black community and other marginalized communities.
Café X co-created the Black Women’s Resilience Project, a universal basic income pilot program with the goal to provide a standard quality of life for low-income Black women, carrying on the legacy of the Black women before them who fought tirelessly for this ideal in generations past.
The concept of the cooperative originated out of the RISE San Diego community fellowship program completed by Founder and Co-owner, Khea Pollard, in 2016. Khea's background in public service and her passion for systems change drove here to create this vision to tackle systemic issues vulnerable communities in the region face.
Khea fulfills this mission by pursuing partnerships with community-based organizations and individuals; creative and artistic projects; and developing leaders to generate a social, cultural, and economic movement that changes the quality of life in communities - one cup and one bean at a time.
The coffee shop operates as a worker cooperative model between member-owners to create an equitable, collaborative, and inclusive environment where team members are respected and own a piece of the company. Cafe X intentionally curates products from other Black-owned businesses across the country to sell in the cafe to support wealth building for Black-owned business owners nationwide.
FounderFuego's Founder, Amber Tarrac had the opportunity to work with Khea during their time together at the County of San Diego and got to catch up with her at the Logan Heights Community Development Corporation 2nd Annual Taste of Imperial event (pictured together above at Cafe X) to learn more about the coffee shop's growth and mission.
We asked Khea where do you get your founder fuel from?
My founder fuel comes from a strong desire to build community within my family and extended family. Building this starts at home. It's always a leveling up process. Once I reach a certain level here my source of fuel becomes more expansive. All in order.
If you could leave readers with one piece of advice about entrepreneurship, what would it be?
Everyone on this path gets into business or builds an organization for a reason. Get to the bottom of yours. You might be surprised to know it's not the 'why' you thought it was, or the one that most resonates with you today. Be open to examining that foundation inside you, be open to it shifting - and you'll never run out of fuel.
If you could ask readers to do one (or three) things after reading this article, what would they be?
1. Book us for catering for your events or meetings.
2) Come to the shop and pick a day on the calendar to bring your meet up group, free of charge.
3) Talk to us about servicing your office coffee program - your teams need a boost of good local coffee and tea. We're here to serve you, and we love it. So many ways to have your money circulate locally, building up small mission-driven businesses is key.
Learn more about this movement, purchase from the online store, and visit in person for a cup with purpose at 1835 Imperial Avenue, San Diego, CA 92102 and on the website Café X: By Any Beans Necessary.
