A up-to-date family-owned coffee shop in Lemon Grove is uniting the local community and making a difference in the lives of others.
Lemon Grove Coffee is located in the Art Deco Business Building at the corner of Broadway and Lemon Grove Avenue.
“We are right next to the substantial Lemon and Lemon Grove store, and right next to the tram stop, so when you walk into Lemon Grove, we are one of the first things you see.” – Casey Daugherty he said.
Casey’s property and her sister-in-law Hannah Calo-Witt, Lemon Grove Coffee has everything you’d expect from a neighborhood coffee shop, but there’s something else that’s a bit of a surprise.
“The coffee was a huge success,” Calo-Witt said. he said.
“We get asked about our coffee all the time,” Daugherty says. added. “All the coffee, all the espresso, our cool brew, our iced coffee — we used Talitha for everything.”
Talitha Coffee is a San Diego-based bean company.
“Talitha is a coffee company that is dedicated to hiring, training, and providing comprehensive support to survivors of human trafficking,” said Jenny Barber, who helped found the company with her husband in 2022.
Barber has worked in the anti-trafficking field through advocacy and outreach for 14 years and was frustrated that many survivors were returning to the streets due to barriers to employment.
It was then that the couple’s passion and hobby combined to create a solution.
“My husband started roasting coffee as a hobby. He started with popcorn on our stove, and we quickly realized he was really good at it,” Barber said. “I would go out in the middle of the night and connect with these survivors and see them go and come back, and I was really getting discouraged. He had this idea of what it would be like if we started a coffee company where we could actually take what we have and bring it to the table and make a difference.”
They did—and Talitha is making an impact through sales and hiring. Over the past year, they’ve hired five survivors and built a network of care, working with local experts and nonprofits like Justice 180, Alabaster jar design AND Generate Hopeto lend a hand victims recover, return to work, and ultimately thrive.
“It’s amazing to see survivors take pride in their courage and take bold steps, and now not only will their lives be changed, but also the generations that will come after them,” Barber said.
This purpose-built product seems to be the perfect solution for business owners.
“For us to work with someone who had such a vision and played such an crucial role in helping victims of human trafficking was huge,” Daugherty said. “The fact that it’s really great coffee, it tastes great, it’s roasted in San Diego, it’s a local company, it’s just like icing on the cake.”
How the community has responded to Talitha’s situation holds special significance for Barber, who is a survivor of childhood abuse herself.
“To see people, whether they realize it or not, have an impact on changing lives is just amazing,” Barber said.
Barber is now bringing hope to other residents of Lemon Grove and beyond — one cup at a time.
Talitha It sells wholesale and on a subscription basis, and its operations cover the entire country.
Barber says their five-year goal is to employ 1,000 survivors and multiply the impact they have through their partnerships.
