At Sanford's Palate Coffee Brewery, everyone working volunteers their time, and every customer who stops in contributes to fighting human trafficking.
- Tina Kadolph says her mother forced her into human trafficking
- All profits from Palate Coffee Brewery help fight human trafficking
- Kadolph wants to open safe house for girls in Guyana this fall
"We tell them they can be the hero, because with every cup of coffee they buy, they're supporting what we're doing," said Tina Kadolph, founder and president of Love Missions.
All profits go to the fight against human trafficking.
"I know that we were put here for a reason: to make a difference. And that's what I hope we to do: Impact every life that comes through these doors one way or another," Kadolph said.
However, opening this shop was not something Kadolph had dreamed about growing up.
"People have dreams about what they want to have happen. I didn't even have dreams," Kadolph said.
She says she was forced into a life of human trafficking by her mother when she was a child.
"I honestly didn't believe I would be here today, that I would be alive today," Kadolph said.
She eventually escaped, and with the help of her family turned her life around. She formed the nonprofit Love Missions with her husband, and they opened the coffee shop in downtown Sanford almost three years ago.
"There was a young lady who came in to use the bathroom," Kadolph said. "I was here, and after getting into a conversation with her found out she had fled from Fort Lauderdale."
That woman was homeless, but Kadolph helped the woman get her life back on track.
Kadolph says there is a reason people notice polished rustic wood everywhere they look in the coffee shop.
"Everything in here has been made out of palates, and it's beautiful, and that's the message we want to give to survivors: that they're not trash. They're valuable," Kadolph said.
For Kadolph, the days without dreams are gone.
"And now I have big, big dreams to help change other people's lives and give them dreams for a future," Kadolph said.
Her new mission is opening a safe house for girls in Guyana this fall, and she hopes to open a safe house here in the States someday.