Coffee shop spreads kindness through products, people, programs
La La Land Kind Café is a coffee shop that has locations in and around Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles, California.
It proudly makes delicious handcrafted beverages — but the café has a much bigger purpose for its business as well.
The café has a very simple motto: Normalize kindness.
“We believe that success is measured [by] the positive impact we make in society, not just how much money we make,” according to the café’s website.
So how exactly is the company doing that?
It’s spreading kindness to its customers in its shops and throughout the community.
The café’s TikTok account has over 6 million followers and 99.6 million likes at the time of this report.
But what type of videos are they making?
The account has produced 74 “drive-by-kindness” videos of people shouting kind comments to strangers walking down the street — with one video even hitting over 16 million views.
“If we can have a positive impact on all human beings who walk through our doors, the kindness will spread like wildfire,” the company believes.
Many users commented on the video, saying they would cry if this happened to them — or that it made people’s day.
The café, however, also has an initiative for workers that stands out among the efforts of other businesses.
After learning about the number of children who age out of the foster care system and have issues finding a job, La La Land decided to create a program for foster youth who are in need of jobs.
The business runs a program for foster young people in every city’s flagship store — an eight-week program in which foster youth learn skills to help them succeed in all aspects of life.
During the program, they acquire on-the-job training and customer service skills — they also have mentorship experience.
After the program ends, the young people can choose their passion and the career field they’d like to enter.
For the rest of their life, these young people will be able to accept guidance on job placement, housing, schooling, and therapy, according to the café’s We Are One project.
The program helps guide foster youth in the right direction on these fronts.
“At La La Land, our foster youth work alongside special needs individuals as one family-oriented workplace,” the company says on its website.
“Side by side, the La La Squad create a welcoming space where everyone can feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.”
The company also says, “We all believe in second chances, but these youth never even received their first.”
It adds, “These are our kids, our sons, and daughters, brothers, and sisters. We are one, America — let’s start acting like it.”