With delectable food made with a waffle iron and the desire to bring positivity to Fort Collins, Just Love Coffee Cafe works to create a unique and heartfelt atmosphere that actively reaches out to meaningful causes and lovingly builds up the community in and out of the cafe.

Just Love Coffee Cafe began as a simple coffee shop in 2009 with a purpose to help families in the adoption process, which stemmed from founder Rob Webb’s personal experiences with adoption. After Webb and his wife adopted their children from Ethiopia, they recognized how difficult and costly the adoption process is. With this in mind, Webb started Just Love Coffee Cafe to fund families going through the same process.

Cindy Richards is the owner of the Fort Collins location and has been working alongside her daughter to maintain Webb’s mission. She recalled how Webb raised $100,000 in the first year and chose to donate its entirely to families in need of support during the adoption process. Richards found the story of Webb very heartwarming and philanthropic and felt encouraged to grow with this legacy.

“Community outreach and mental health awareness are two of the most important things to the owner here. I know that the involvement with that is super important to them. To work at a place where that’s one of the top values and to be around people who care is such an honor.” –Ashley Jones-Sykes, Just Love Coffee Cafe employee

“I thought that the whole story was very inspiring,” Richards said. “(My daughter) Jordan and I have done a lot of volunteer work in the past, so that was something that kind of hit our hearts that (we) wanted to be a part of.”

Richards said each location is meant to find a cause close to their hearts. For her and her daughter, the cause that matters the most to them is mental health awareness.

Upon walking into the shop, the workers greet each customer warmly and strive to ensure the best experience for each person who walks through the door, from the food to the ambience. Barista Sophia Coen was really drawn to the tight-knit, family-owned community and how it allowed her to bring customers into this welcoming space with different yet positive experiences for each person.

“I get to tell people, ‘Have a good day,’ and make their day better,” Coen said. “I like being the person they come in and see. … We always try to make everything unique to the person.”

Ashley Jones-Sykes is a junior at Colorado State University and normally works in the back of the cafe preparing most of the food items. She loves how involved Richards is in the coffee shop and how the team members pride themselves on being kind and considerate. It upholds the true importance of Just Love Coffee’s backstory, further strengthening their goal to be more involved in fundraising and charity opportunities to help a multitude of matters in the community.

“Not a whole lot of coffee shops have a backstory,” Jones-Sykes said. “Coming into a place where they do have a sweet history (and mission) helps you care about the place more.”

Even though the cafe has only been open for two months, Richards already has big future plans to develop involvement with various organizations working to advocate for mental health awareness. She said they have plans for a fundraiser in May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month, most likely in collaboration with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and other potential support programs.

Jones-Sykes said she admires how much the cafe believes in reaching out to different groups and how much they cherish those communal connections to make a difference. She said seeing their passion to help the Fort Collins community only strengthens her wish to see the continuous growth of Just Love Coffee Cafe.

“Community outreach and mental health awareness are two of the most important things to the owner here,” Jones-Sykes said. “I know that the involvement with that is super important to them. To work at a place where that’s one of the top values and to be around people who care is such an honor.”

Reach Sananda Chandy at life@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.