Our vision is to cultivate a safe place for families and individuals to connect in the community, recharge in a pleasant environment, and engage locally and globally through the workshops we provide.

  • Coffee Shop

    The front of the space will serve as a welcoming world-themed coffee shop that offers coffee from roasters who are committed to supporting and building up small coffee farms and their communities. As well as a brunch all-day concept with international staple foods from different countries and cultures around the world.

  • Workshops

    Located adjacent to the coffee shop, this space will be utilized to host a variety of workshops and classes with an inter-ethnic component. Such as Sprout to the World toddler program and immersion cultural classes (including ethnic food and language).

  • The Lab

    This initiative offers up-and-coming entrepreneurs, whose vision and mission align with The Village, the opportunity to implement or try out their dream venture in the Coffee Shop or through the Workshops. The Lab seeks to highlight the diversity of our world and help those who have a creative and original idea to make it a reality.

Sprout to The World Program

LOCATION

The Village will be located in Long Island City, Queens, a neighborhood known to be a family-oriented community.

Here are a few highlights from this strategic location:

  • It is near the 7 train, just one stop to Grand Central.

  • It is near the Ferry, one stop to the 34th St stop, just a few blocks from the UN's Headquarters.

  • It is a popular destination among locals and tourists.

  • More than 40% of residents in this area are families with children.

  • 33% of the population are foreign-born.

  • It is a very diverse community (47% White, 29% Asian, and 16% Hispanic or Latino).

  • 75% of residents commute to work.

FINANCIALS

Our finances are divided into the following:

  1. Built out and equipment: $165K

  2. Six months working capital: $100K

*We are currently fundraising for our second category ($100K).

TEAM

  • Koob Vang, studied music performance at Crown College in Minnesota. Afterwards, he worked as a minister in Omaha, NE before moving to New York and completing his Master’s of Divinity at Alliance University in 2015.

    For the last six years he has been living in China, working as an English teacher while doing international projects on the side within a diverse community. Some of those projects include teaching, hosting events, doing community work, organizing children’s activities, etc.

    Throughout his educational career, he has had multiple experiences with sales, customer service, working one-on-one with special needs students, and also managing shifts at a coffee shop.

    For the last seven years he has been seriously pursuing specialty coffee as a connoisseur and now plans to transition it into a career.

  • Keren Gunawan holds a bachelor’s in Primary Education from Pelita Harapan University, a University in Indonesia, and a Diploma in Montessori Education. She is currently working on her Master’s of Education in Intellectual Disability/Autism in Early Childhood at Teachers College, Columbia University New York and is due to graduate on May, 2024.

    She has been volunteering in a non-profit Kindergarten that was opened by her home church since 2012 as a teachers’ and parents’ trainer, as well as a teacher herself.

    She has experience in teaching children age 0-7. She taught in an International school for 5 years and a home school setting for a year. She loves to explore and learn different curricula, and put them into practice.

    In 2020, she led a team that got a funding from US Mission for ASEAN to start making an Indonesian phonics program, named Fonik Asyik. Together with the team, she created the program, the educational materials and trained teachers and parents on the importance of phonics and how to implement it.

  • Piero has a bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Master’s of Divinity from Alliance University in New York. He also holds an advanced Masters of Theology Degree from Princeton Seminary.

    He has been working in community building positions as a leader and clergy for more than 10 years. He has worked with people from a vast array of cultural backgrounds, both locally and cross-culturally as a minister, youth director, professor, pastoral resident, among other positions.

    Piero also has more than seven years of entrepreneurial experience related to community building, his most recent endeavor was starting a new faith-based community in Manhattan, where people from different cultural and religious backgrounds are welcomed, and now, only one year later of having regular meetings it has more than 15 countries represented among its adherents, and have become resourceful to the local community of internationals in NYC.

    As an entrepreneur and visionary, Piero wholeheartedly believes that The Village will also become resourceful, and beneficial to the local families and community of Hunters Point South through its Community Center and Coffee Shop.

  • Andrea Gorriti holds a bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Lima and a Masters in Intercultural Studies from Alliance University in New York.

    She has been working in community-based positions for over 10 years. She has experience working as a waitress, administrator, store manager, brand manager, teacher, coach, and community director.

    One of her biggest passions is to plan, organize, and execute events. She has worked in different settings, planning events of all sizes. She currently oversees the execution of 60+ gatherings and events per year.

    Andrea has also been part of the Peruvian National Soccer team and has used her skills to give back to her community coaching soccer to kids in different settings.

    She is also a teacher and coach for an organization working with survivors of human trafficking in NYC.

  • Camila Unzueta graduated with distinction from Le Cordon Bleu Peru and holds a Master's degree in Restaurant Management from the Basque Culinary Center in Spain. She is the owner of Amarena Cafe Urbano, a brunch all-day concept cafe that won the award of the Best New Cafe in Lima, Peru in 2022. Previously, she worked in fine dining restaurants such as Central (#1 in the world), Kjolle (#8 in Latin America), Astrid y Gaston (#30 in Latin America), and Moments (2 Michelin stars).

  • Over the past 8 years, Peter has been working at various levels of the coffee industry. In COVID, Peter was able to be a part of 2 different startups. The first was an online roasting business called Tribe Roast Company that sought to contribute to Micro-Finance loans for people around the globe and partner with ethically sourced coffee suppliers. The second was a coffee shop called The Well serving specialty coffee in Flushing, NY for the purpose of connecting with the local community and becoming a self-sustainable ministry model. Peter is currently on his third project called Elm Roastery in Elmhurst, NY which is a coffee roastery and café startup with the goal to partner with locals and empower individuals through craft coffee and community development while giving a spotlight to the incredibly diverse and beautiful neighborhood of Elmhurst.

  • Chef Yia Vang was born in Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand after his family escaped from the aftermath of the Vietnam War. While growing up in the US, doing part-time jobs as a dishwasher and cook helped ignite his journey of passion for cooking.

    Now, as a highly decorated chef. He’s the owner/chef of the James Beard-nominated restaurant Union Hmong Kitchen located in Minneapolis, MN specializing in Hmong cuisine as well as his up-and-coming restaurant, Vinai.

    As recently seen on Good Morning America, James Beard Finalist and EATERS “Chef of the Year,” Yia Vang has also been featured in multiple publications including Bon Appetit, The Blue Zones American Kitchen cookbook, Esquire, Midwest Living Magazine and Te Magazine. He has been in other projects including competing as a challenger on Netflix’s “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend”, hosting Food Network’s “Stoked” and the White on Rice podcast. He currently hosts another podcast called Hmong-lish, he hosts the TPT – Twin Cities PBS Originals TV series: Relish, and on set to film a third season of the Outdoors Channel series, “ Feral”.

  • Carlo Florentin, an avid café and restaurant entrepreneur from Argentina, graduated from Alliance University in New York with a B.S. in Accounting.

    He started his entrepreneurial journey at the young age of 18 by starting his first Italian and Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in upstate New York. Now, more than ten years later, he is a successful business owner with three Carini Brick Oven Cafe locations in Upstate New York and The Poconos.

    Holding different certifications in the hospitality industry paired with his extensive experience as a restaurant business owner has allowed him to be a consultant in the industry.

    Carlo has also been a wealth manager for many years and enjoys spending time with his parents and relatives who live close by.