Meet Natalie Webb | Executive Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Webb and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
Cafecita is entirely committed to helping the community! All our coffees come from sustainable women-owned coffee farms and co-ops, and a percentage of every sale goes to supporting women’s nonprofits around the world.

This social enterprise model, where the business side sustains the nonprofit side, was very intentional. We didn’t want to rely on grants for our social impact and we wanted everyone involved, from our coffee producers to our customers, to feel empowered and engaged. We support our producers by providing market access, ensuring they are paid fairly, and that gender equality is respected at every stage of production. Our customers are able to support this empowerment model by purchasing single origin, specialty coffee, which was already a part of their daily routine. It’s a win win for everyone.

We focus specifically on supporting women coffee producers because they have historically been overlooked and undercompensated. Reports show that women often comprise up to 70 percent of the manual labor on coffee farms—planting, picking, processing, sorting—yet are far less represented in decision-making, trading, analysis, or business ownership. Less than 20% of the world’s landholders are women. The UN has found that just providing women the same access as men to agricultural resources would reduce world hunger by 12-17%.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
After working as a human rights lawyer for 10 years I launched Cafecita in 2020 with the goal of creating a company that actually does good. A company whose mission is empowerment and sustainability. All Cafecita coffees come from sustainable women-owned coffee farms and co-ops, and a percentage of every sale goes to supporting women’s nonprofits around the world. It hasn’t been easy, small business life is very challenging, but the support and encouragement from our customers, partners, and community make all the difference. We now supply the coffee to Patagonia’s headquarters, a company I look up to as the epitome of a company doing good. Gaining that type of recognition is incredibly validating and keeps me going.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love sunset picnics on the beach during summer. It always makes me grateful for living in LA. I’m also a big fan of LACMA, Grand Performances, and KCRW summer nights. They always have good music and positive vibes. I guess I have a summer theme going.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Cafecita has an amazing board of advisors–Samantha Nzessi, Briana Fedele, Da Hae Kim, Erika Rincón, and Krystal Tena. These women are Cafecita’s biggest advocates and I couldn’t have launched the company without their encouragement and constant support.

Website: www.cafecitacoffee.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafecitacoffee

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cafecita

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cafecitacoffee

Image Credits
Cafecita