New Jersey Cafe Owners Offer Support to Small Colombian Community Impacted by Recent Earthquakes

NEED TO KNOW

• Rey Sol Coffee Roasters’ owners from Morristown, N.J. launched a GoFundMe to aid earthquake victims in their Colombian hometown of Balboa

• The fundraiser supports families with damaged homes, providing tarps, tents, and essential supplies for immediate relief

• The cafe is also collecting in-person donations like food, blankets, and hygiene products at its New Jersey locations in Morristown and Ridgewood

A New Jersey cafe is providing aid to its owner’s Colombian hometown in the wake of the recent devastating earthquakes.

Johanna Porras-Ramirez, co-owner of Rey Sol Coffee Roasters in Morristown, N.J. maintains a strong connection with her hometown of Balboa, Colombia. Following the Aug. 10 earthquake, during which more than 2,000 people were reported missing, Johanna, her husband Arley Ramirez, and their daughters Linda and Natalie have organized a GoFundMe to support the victims, local outlet Morristown Green reported.

“Our family’s roots in Colombia’s coffee mountains go back six generations, and home for us is Balboa, Risaralda,” the GoFundMe description reads. “The families of Risaralda and Balboa are the reason we carry our story so strongly — the farmers who grow our beans, the neighbors who raised us, the people we represent in every cup we pour here.”

The coffee shop owner wrote that the town had suffered “the strongest [earthquake] in Colombia in a decade.”

“Homes cracked, roofs caved in, and families are sleeping outside tonight, afraid to return to unstable walls. The need is urgent, and every day matters,” the family wrote of the damage.

The family said they have been working directly with the Balboa Fire Department (Cuerpo de Bomberos), who have gone “house to house to document exactly which homes were compromised by the quake.”

Donations from the GoFundMe will be used to provide tarps to cover the more than 600 homes that were partially damaged, “protecting families from the rain while repairs begin,” and tents for the families who “lost their homes entirely and have nowhere to sleep.”

The coffee shop is also welcoming in-person donations of tarps and tents at their shop locations in Morristown and Ridgewood, N.J.

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“Coffee has always been a bridge between our two homes,” the description reads. “Right now, Balboa is hurting, and we are reaching across that bridge with everything we have.”

In an interview with Morristown Green, Johanna provided an update on the volume of donations.

“It’s so crowded that we have no room to walk,” she told the outlet. “Now we need money for a 40-foot container to send all these packages.”

According to the outlet, the coffee shop is also accepting donations of non-perishable food, toiletries and hygiene products, blankets, flashlights, first-aid kits, and clothing for children, adults, and seniors.

PEOPLE has reached out to Rey Sol.

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit western Colombia, leaving hundreds injured and thousands missing, PEOPLE previously reported. As of Aug. 13, the death toll was reported to be 281 people, according to ABC News.

The earthquake was the strongest one to hit Colombia in the 21st century, according to Reuters. The epicenter of the quake was located in San Jose del Palmar, about 174 miles west of Bogotá, triggering mass evacuations, per the outlet.

The earthquake also impacted bordering countries Ecuador and Panama.

Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has declared a national disaster and announced that he was traveling to Bogotá, the country’s capital, to “focus on addressing the emergency that our country faces.”

“I have convened a United Command Post at the UNGRD from where I will personally lead the actions to assist communities in Choco, Eje Cafetero, and all affected areas,” he wrote on X.

Read the original article on People