I have co-operated Well Grounded Tea and Coffee Bar with my wife since 2005. It’s been our passion project together, a fulfillment of a dream to demonstrate that entrepreneurship can have a positive impact on the community within which we reside. It has been an honor and a blessing to operate here in El Cerrito. Receiving such amazing support from everyone around us has allowed us to provide support to various local organizations: local schools and PTAs, CCCT, ECYB, ECFC, ECHS and Korematsu Clubs, the Wildcat 4-H Club, just to name a few. Well Grounded’s ethos is simply to aim for the stars while keeping our feet on the ground. We constantly strive to add more … more menu items, a Beer Club, a Cowork Space, more fun events. We also follow the old hippy mantra “Think Globally, Act Locally”. It’s a point of pride for us that we divert 12 huge cans of recycling every week, and are setting up to divert two large cans of compost a week in 2022. Looking forward to 2022, I hope to share my enthusiasm with other El Cerrito business owners and advocate for small businesses like yours.