I’m Marifel, and I’m asking for support for our small Asian grocery store, a business proudly run by women and immigrants. For the past couple of years, we’ve been talking about bringing Meryenda Cafe to life inside our store so we can offer prepared food and Filipino baked goods to our community. This dream means so much to us because our store has always been about more than groceries. It’s about culture, comfort, and creating a welcoming place where people can find familiar flavors and feel at home.

Our original plan had to be scrapped because of extensive plumbing and venting requirements, which made the project much harder than we expected. Now, we have a more realistic path forward by converting our already approved meat market kitchen into a deli kitchen. This approach helps us avoid those plumbing issues, but we still need help to make it happen. The funds raised will go toward closing off part of the existing building, covering permits, paying for construction labor, and purchasing the building equipment we need to open this new space.

We had hoped to raise these funds over the summer, but it turned out to be one of our slowest summers to date, and we fell short. If you’ve been following our journey and hearing us talk about Meryenda Cafe, we would be so grateful for your help now. Every donation, share, and word of encouragement brings us closer to making this conversion possible for our business and for our community. Thank you for believing in us and helping us take this next step.