Caviteño family starts ‘mobile cafe’ amid pandemic, donates part of earnings to kids with online classes

A family from Imus, Cavite has found a workaround to be productive while helping people who work remotely in the midst of a global pandemic.

John Eric Enopia, a 36-year-old coffee roaster and a sales and technical specialist, started his own mobile cafe business last May with the help of his family, and called it “The Cooking Dad Bake and Brew.”

John Eric Enopia started his own mobile cafe business last May with the help of his family and called it “The Cooking Dad Bake and Brew.” Image: courtesy of John Eric Enopia

The family project sees Enopia in charge of baking, brewing and selling. It got moving with a startup capital of P5,000, from which they produced only three pieces of cassava cake, the family’s all-time favorite, and was followed by two bottles of cold brew coffee drinks which they successfully sold.

Enopia’s wife, Sheng, 38, who currently works remotely as an accounting manager, has been in charge of the purchasing and accounting matters of their business. Their two kids, Shayne, 11, and Uno, 7, are in charge of managing the donations for “Save the Children Philippines” which is their chosen non-profit organization.

The Enopia family. Image: courtesy of John Eric Enopia

The cassava cakes’ cost varies depending on their sizes: P60 for the mini ones and P190 for the bigger ones. For the drinks, they offer muscovado-flavored cold brew coffee for P80 per bottle, and a caramel latte-flavored cold brew coffee for P90 per bottle.

“Our coffee is from Atok, Benguet, [since] we want to support local as well,” Enopia told INQUIRER.net in an interview.

According to Enopia, they will also be serving hot coffees soon, as requested by their clients. Apart from baked goods and coffee drinks, they are also selling gourmet tuyo which costs P175 per bottle.

The Cooking Dad Bake & Brew food products. Photo courtesy: John Eric Enopia/Facebook

“Kailan man ay hindi naging dahilan ang pandemya para mawalan ng pag-asa,” Enopia said in a Facebook post on Thursday, Sep. 10, as he recalled how his family’s business thrives amid challenges brought by the pandemic. (The pandemic has never been a reason to lose hope.)

https://www.facebook.com/johnericenopia/posts/3580146342005258

Fortunately, they get to sell out all their food products quickly whenever the mobile cafe runs around the Cavite area. But like any other small enterprises struggling during this crisis, the Enopia family’s small business did not thrive well in the beginning.

“Nung una po, may mga times na walang umo-order, pero hindi kami nawalan ng hope. Post [kami] dito, post doon. At sa help ng mga friends, lumakas din naman po [ang negosyo] sa huli,” Enopia further told INQUIRER.net.

(At first, there were times when no one ordered, but we did not lose hope. We post here, post there. And with the help of our friends, [the business] grew stronger in the end.)

Donations for a child advocacy group

The Enopia family’s initiative of helping the group “Save the Children Philippines” through donations started when they thought of children who are struggling with online classes.

“Since sa private school naman po nag-aaral [ang aming mga anak], medyo hindi problem sa amin yun, so naisip namin na yung ibang mga bata na hindi kaya maka-avail ng laptop, gadgets, etc. Paano sila mag-aaral?,” Enopia said.

(Since our kids are enrolled in a private school, [online classes] do not seem to be a problem for us, so we thought about other kids who cannot afford laptops, gadgets, etc. How will they study?)

The family then searched for children’s organizations online and found “Save the Children Philippines” which has a program intended for less fortunate children’s education.

“We called them and [they] entertained us. We are already on our fourth month of giving them our donations this September,” Enopia added.

Thriving on a business may be challenging now, but for Enopia, the message remains the same: “Never lose hope.”

“Kung may mga times na akala mo walang pag-asa, meron yan, ‘wag lang mainip maghintay (If there are times when you think there is no hope, there is, just do not be impatient while waiting),” he said. “Never give up. Pray and something will happen.” JB

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