Portland’s Matta Cafe raising funds for Colombia quake relief

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Coffee—but with a purpose.

Aura Matta, owner of Matta Cafe, is hoping to help her native country of Colombia after a 7.4 earthquake devastated the South American country on Monday.

“We are doing a fundraiser of ten percent of all the sales for the cafe during this week are going to be donated to the Red Cross in Colombia to help,” Matta said.

Officials say more than 100,000 people have been impacted by the earthquake, with tens of thousands of homes being destroyed.

“There is people that don’t have a roof, for tonight as an example. And that’s pretty devastating,” said Matta.

Matta, whose family helps supply her coffee locally in Portland, said her family and their farm are fine. But she has friends and colleagues impacted by this devastating disaster.

“It is scary, it is sad, it is devastating because I’ve never seen anything like that happening in Colombia. I never thought that would be a reality for us,” said Matta.

Officials said this is the first major earthquake there this century.

Matta moved to the area to attend Portland State University about four years ago.

She says the Pacific Northwest community welcomed her and her business with open arms.

And she’s hoping that same community will help her home country as they now work to rebuild after the natural disaster.

“At the end of the day, they are friends, they are family. They’re a friend of a friend, the friend of a cousin, a friend of an aunt and I want to be there for them as my customers are here for me,” said Matta.

Matta has raised hundreds of dollars already. She said her fundraiser will run through Sunday in hopes of sending even more help to Colombia.

Matta Café is open daily 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.