Angelina Bell Interview, 10 November 2025

Abstract

In this 2025 interview, entrepreneur Angelina Bell describes her journey in founding Humble Mornings Coffee Company in 2021, which intentionally sources beans from minority women farmers in South America and Africa through transparent and ethical supply chains. Bell reflects on her partnership with the Loiter Organization and its hybrid for-profit/nonprofit model designed to reinvest in local communities, including her participation in the new Maroon Square business incubator opening in East Cleveland. Throughout the interview, Bell emphasizes her broader civic engagement, board service, and belief that entrepreneurship should simultaneously provide a livelihood and serve humanity.

Interviewee

Bell, Angelina (interviewee)

Interviewer

Mays, Nick (interviewer)

Project

East Cleveland

Date

11-10-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

53 minutes

Recommended Citation

"Angelina Bell Interview, 10 November 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 757019.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1419

Related Resources

East Cleveland @ Cleveland Voices

Transcript

Nick Mays [00:00:00] My name is Dr. Nicholas Mays, and today is November 10, 2025, and we are here as a part of the East Cleveland Oral History Project. We are joined by Ms. Angelina Bell, who is an entrepreneur, coffee roaster, and founder of Humble Mornings Coffee Company. Although not an East Cleveland native, Ms. Bell has become part of the city’s unfolding story of revitalization through her partnership with the Loiter East Cleveland organization and the upcoming Maroon Square Community Cafe, a space designed to celebrate local businesses, connections, and shared investment in the neighborhood’s future. [00:00:48] Today, we will talk about Ms. Bell’s journey, values, her connection to East Cleveland, and how her work represents a new kind of business rooted in purpose and possibility. Ms. Bell, thank you for being here.

Angelina Bell [00:01:04] Thank you for having me.

Nick Mays [00:01:06] Could we start with you telling us your name, your age, and date of birth?

Angelina Bell [00:01:12] My name is Angelina Anita Bell. I am 38 years old. My birthday is […] 1987.

Nick Mays [00:01:20] Thank you, Ms. Bell. Okay, so we’re gonna start early life with early life in your entrepreneurial beginnings. Ms. Bell, let’s first begin with your background. Where were you born? How did you grow up? And. Well, let’s start with that. Where were you born? And talk about growing up.

Angelina Bell [00:01:41] I was born at Hillcrest Mayfield Hospital, but I grew up in Twinsburg Township. My mom is from Oakwood Village, so we. We moved, like, four miles away from where she grew up from. So I went to. I graduated from Twinsburg High School. After that. When I was in Twinsburg High School, I went to Cuyahoga Valley Career center for Hospitality Management. Then after I got done with high school, I went to Summit College. It is, like. Like a community college for Akron, and you get, like, certification. So I want to become a baker. So.

Nick Mays [00:02:22] So tell us about who was Ms. Bell in middle school or high school?

Angelina Bell [00:02:29] Oh, she was sassy. She was sassy, and she was determined to do whatever she wanted to do. I grew up in an environment that, like, the teachers and my family and friends was like, whatever you want to do, you can do. I have family members that are doctors, lawyers, engineers. Everything was on the table. Whatever you chose to do, you had the possibility to do in, like, the environment I grew up in. So my father has been an entrepreneur my whole life. He’s a carpenter. So I seen the autonomy that he had with time and finances. So I was like, eventually I wanted to own my own, like, cafe. Then, you know, life happens and.

Nick Mays [00:03:17] But, yeah, we will unpack that. What early experiences shaped your sense of purpose or entrepreneurship?

Angelina Bell [00:03:33] Like my early experiences with, like, entrepreneurship was, like, craft shows when I was, like, in my early 20s, right, doing community events. And I see how the community came out and supported these craft shows. And I was just selling, like, cookie jars of, like, cookie mixing jars and stuff like that. Then I was like, okay, community supports each other. And that just gave me a sense of, like, understanding, like, how important community really is for any small local business. Because if you don’t have your regulars, you won’t be able to survive.

Nick Mays [00:04:10] What did you want to be when you were in high school?

Angelina Bell [00:04:12] I wanted to be, like, a French baker. I wanted to make, like, all these decadent pastries, and I was like, I don’t want to do that. That’s hard work. I was like, I don’t want to do all that.

Nick Mays [00:04:23] Was that entrepreneur? Did you want to be an entrepreneur or did you just want to work for, like, be a baker working for.

Angelina Bell [00:04:28] No, I always want. I have always wanted to have my own bake shop, especially, like, like, eighth grade to, like, 11th. I wanted to have, like, a French bake shop. I was like, I want to go to France and learn how to bake. And I was like. Then I thought about it, and I looked at the cost of going. I was like, that’s not really possible.

Nick Mays [00:04:45] What year did you graduate high school?

Angelina Bell [00:04:47] 2006.

Nick Mays [00:04:49] Okay, so you graduated high school, 2006. Do you immediately go to Akron or Cuyahoga Community College?

Angelina Bell [00:05:02] No, I just. What did I do? I didn’t do anything for, like, the first year after high school. I worked at Kaufman’s and just, you know, dilly dally and try to figure out what I wanted to do. Then eventually I went to Akron that following fall. 07. That fall of 07.

Nick Mays [00:05:22] Introduce us to your parents. And do you have siblings?

Angelina Bell [00:05:26] Yeah, my mom, Sandra, then my dad, Theodore. My dad is from the Greater Buckeye neighborhood. My mom is from Oakwood, Bedford area. I have three little brothers. I have Alvrey, I have Chad, and I have Tyler. How old are they? 29, 25, 22. Something much younger than me.

Nick Mays [00:05:48] What did your parents. What did your parents do as a a profession?

Angelina Bell [00:05:53] My mom’s a nurse. My dad’s a carpenter. So my mom has always worked, you know, at different facilities, hospitals, nurse homes, rehabs. And my dad has been an entrepreneur my whole life, and he still is.

Nick Mays [00:06:07] What about your family roots, ancestors?

Angelina Bell [00:06:10] My mom’s side of the family from Elvington, Georgia. Mage, my mom’s mom. They’re from Elton, Georgia. And Actually, we still go down there and I see them because like one of my closest friends is my cousin Brittany, and she’s my fourth cousin and I was at her wedding. However, people be like, oh, so far down the line. [00:06:35] But my family’s very tight knit on my mom’s side. So yeah, I was gonna say my mom’s family is very tight. My mom is 1 in 9. They all still live in like Twinsburg, Macedonia area. Couple of them live in the Carolinas now. I see them quite often. Even though they live in different places, like different places in the state, I still see them like three, four times out of the year.

Nick Mays [00:06:59] Do you, can you recall, remember anything that your parents told, taught or instilled in you that lives with you today?

Angelina Bell [00:07:07] You work hard and you have pride in everything that you do. It don’t matter what you have. It’s about taking pride in what you have. You know what I’m saying? Like, you can have a shack, but if you have pride in your shack, people don’t see that pride versus the actual shack.

Nick Mays [00:07:23] Thank you. Now introduce us to your now immediate family.

Angelina Bell [00:07:26] So now I’m a mom. I have a 14 year old daughter. Her name’s Ayimofe and that means my true desire from God. She’s brilliant. She’s beautiful and brilliant. She’s smart, soft spoken, passionate and driven. She wants to be a diplomat and an attorney. So I’m very proud of her.

Nick Mays [00:07:48] You’ve said that Humble Mornings Coffee Co. Is your third and most successful business.

Angelina Bell [00:07:54] Yes.

Nick Mays [00:07:54] What lessons did you learn from the first two ventures?

Angelina Bell [00:07:58] If you’re gonna have a business partner, you have to choose wise and make sure that your core values align and to make sure that the person has. Is invested as much as you are. You can’t be more invested into something than somebody else because then they become an anchor. When you’re trying to push forward, you’re not able to push forward as, I don’t want to say fast, but as steady because the other person may have reservations or hesitation and they’re not honest about what those are.

Nick Mays [00:08:33] Did those lessons help or inform your new adventure, your new business?

Angelina Bell [00:08:39] Hell yeah. I don’t got no business partner here for humble mornings at all. Yeah, because before I had Humble mornings, I had 142 Redz barbecue sauce and I had a business partner and we just didn’t, we weren’t equally yoked. A lot of the work fell on my plate and he wasn’t, he wasn’t, he didn’t have the skills or the motivation to like push the product. Because when you are making a product and no one knows about your brand, you gotta be a salesperson, your marketing person. So you got to go store to store handout samples, you got to do local events, you got to promote yourself. And that was something that wasn’t his strength and he wasn’t willing to even try to adapt it either. So then before then I did like kettle corn and crepes and only reason why I don’t do that no more because I did that at like county fairs. And then I want to have my daughter. It was too much. I can’t be, you know, I can’t. You can’t take a six month to a 15 day county fair and work 12 hours a day for 15 days straight. That’s just too much for any little kid. Unless they live the county town, the like the county life, not county. What’s the word I want to use? Tag on it. Just live that lifestyle. And that’s not the lifestyle that I wanted my daughters to live.

Nick Mays [00:10:09] I want to move on to the next topic and that’s building Humble Mornings and Coffee company. First and foremost, what inspired your work with coffee or passion for coffee?

Angelina Bell [00:10:24] I was in August 2019, I was with a good friend Shannon. We was at a festival in Detroit and they didn’t have any coffee and I was like, guess what? I know what my next business is. I’m going to start coffee. And I did. That was then by January 2020 I reached out to Matt at Sorso Coffee to start selling drinks at like different festivals and fairs. So I think January 20, 2020, January 22, I did like the Asian festival and so cups of coffee and baked goods because I was just trying to figure out what part of the coffee industry I wanted to do because I wasn’t exactly sure where to start. By the time March came, Covid hit so all festivals and anything outside was shut down. So that gave me time to really buckle down and understand coffee and like how does coffee work versus just drinking it, right? Coffee is a cherry and we drink the seed of it and it’s dried on beds from the sun. Then I hired Stephanie Sheldon and then we worked on developing my business plan and developing the concept of Humble Mornings Coffee company and seeing what part of the coffee sector that I wanted to do. Did I want to be selling drinks, just have a cafe like I was doing at the beginning of the year or do I want to roast coffee or do I want like to be like an Importer. So it’s different sectors of the coffee business. And then I chose being a coffee roaster because it’s very profitable and it doesn’t take as much overhead as a cafe, even though the equipment, the initial investment for the equipment is very expensive. But over time, you make your money back quickly.

Nick Mays [00:12:30] When did the business initially start? And can you talk about where your coffee product is sold?

Angelina Bell [00:12:39] I was going to say. So from August 2019 to July 2021, I just worked on developing the concepts, buying my coffee roaster and teaching myself to roast. Then July 2021, I did my first event. It was warming up Cleveland, and it was very successful. But between that time, me and Stephanie Sheldon figured out my niche about, like, the woman led coffee. [00:13:14] Because at first I was just going to do African coffee from African women. Then I was like, I could just do all women led coffee farms. Then I got connected with Cafe Femenino is a nonprofit that helps the women with technology, agriculture, so sustainability and quality of life. So then I was able to buy coffee directly from them. [00:13:34] Then over time, I was able to start building my own connections, you know.

Nick Mays [00:13:39] And we’ll talk about that. And so what was your mission from the start?

Angelina Bell [00:13:46] When I first came up with the concept, yeah, I just wanted to. I just had. I didn’t want to blow the money I had from the barbecue sauce business. And I needed to make sure. I asked. I didn’t want to go back to work, right? I was like, I sold the barbecue sauce business and I didn’t want to blow this lump sum of money I had. So I needed to start another business to keep, maintain the lifestyle that I desire, if that makes sense.

Nick Mays [00:14:15] Okay. So, yeah, so that’s entrepreneur. To do well, to not make the same mistakes. But I’m wondering if you start off, did you start with a mission or did that evolve?

Angelina Bell [00:14:29] That came from working with Stephanie Sheldon, of working on my niche, what I wanted to do. So that’s what I hired her for, to help me with it. Because when I came to her, I was like, I just want to have a coffee business. I didn’t know anything about coffee, but she gave me worksheets and asked me provoking questions and like, why do you want to work in coffee? What part of coffee do you want? How do you want to, you know, how is this coffee going to solve a problem in your community? And questions like that. Then I did some research and was like, okay, I’m a minority woman, right? And I could buy coffee from other minority women. So not be able to help them sell their micro lots. Because sometimes, like big coffee roasteries, they don’t want to buy only 200, 300 pounds of coffee. But I’m a small roastery. I could buy your micro lot, the whole micro lot off you, and I can pay whatever price that you’re asking. I’m not going to like nickel or dime you like other bigger coffee companies. So if I’m paying you beyond fair trade, that was going to increase the quality of your life. Because in a lot of these countries, the women are like the heads of the household. So if the woman is doing well in the household, the community is doing well as a whole.

Nick Mays [00:15:46] Wow. And it’s a good time to pivot. So you’ve described Humble Mornings as a company grounded in quality, compassion, and empowerment. What does these values look like in action?

Angelina Bell [00:16:09] In action, Sourcing my single origin coffee. Right. Making sure that the ladies are getting the money directly to make sure the money is impacting their quality of life. Then when I, once I receive it here, I can roast it and sell it and give it to the community that I’m living in and share and tell the story behind the coffee. So because every being has a story, so it’s about the connection of the grower. Of the grower. Then it’s just not like, oh, it’s coffee. But no, this being has a story. It was grown by somebody. It was harvested by somebody. Right. And then it was roasted by somebody. And the whole connection was by another minority woman. So the whole supply chain is supporting the minority woman from seed to conception. 

Nick Mays [00:16:56] Wow. Fascinating. When you say these ladies. Who are these ladies?

Angelina Bell [00:17:01] These ladies are. Sorry. These ladies from all over the world. Like, I was just roasting some coffee from Uganda and she was a nurse from for like 20 years. Then her mother, her father passed away and she took over the farm and she made it a coffee farm. So now she sells the coffee that’s been in her family for, you know, the last 50 years. Right. So and me buying her whole lot, she’s able to live a better life. So I can tell her story. She was a nurse. Her, after she got tired of being a nurse, her husband moved back to their homeland. Right. So. And she’s grading at like a 87. And that’s very high for coffee if you get. She’s using methods that’s been using for hundreds of years. So the quality of coffee is awesome. Then when I bring it here, I roasted single origin. So each origin has its own story. Right. So I don’t Roast light, medium and dark. I just roast to the origin. So the being on, tell me when it’s ready.

Nick Mays [00:18:04] So this is so interesting and fascinating. So you’ve mentioned that you source your beans for minority. Minority women farmers across South America, Africa and Central Central America. Why or how? How? Well first, how did you build these relationships, develop these relationships?

Angelina Bell [00:18:35] Nonprofits and brokers. So like the one program, Cafe Feminade, you buy whatever beans you buy through the year. We donate at the beginning of the year back to a grant to fund whatever project that we desire. So if I buy $10,000 of coffee from them, it’s 50 cent per pound. So I donate that 50 cent back to them at the beginning of the year to fund a grant to support them.

Nick Mays [00:19:03] To support who?

Angelina Bell [00:19:04] The minority women farmers.

Nick Mays [00:19:06] Oh, so you’re purchasing, you’re buying from them and you’re supporting them?

Angelina Bell [00:19:11] Yeah, so it’s like. Yeah, because sometimes they need a little extra. Like some, like right now, like we don’t have stamp benefits because sometimes we need just a little extra to get through. Sometimes they just need a little extra to get to the next level. Then some countries I buy my coffee before harvest because sometimes they need fertilizer. Sometimes they may need better watering stations and stuff like that. So like I may, like I just pay for coffee that I won’t get to February because, you know, because they need the money today, they don’t need the money in February when I’m trying to buy it.

Nick Mays [00:19:51] I see. So is there, have you been able to develop personal relationships with some of these women or is there always a middle entity?

Angelina Bell [00:20:03] There’s always a middle entity because of language barriers. I don’t speak native tongues because a lot of these. Yeah, like. Yeah, you may think people in South America speak Spanish. No, they speak their native trans tribal language just like they do in Africa. So you, you always need probably a third person. It could be a cousin, it could be a broker, it could be a child.

Nick Mays [00:20:27] Were you able to meet any of these? Were you able to go over like to.

Angelina Bell [00:20:30] I have. No, I haven’t been to, I haven’t been to like Africa, but I am planning on going to Colombia. So cuz like I sit on the board for JWA and they were given some sponsorships up to let some people go to Belize in May. So hopefully I give that sponsorship and I’ll be able to go and meet some farmers and stuff.

Nick Mays [00:20:56] Good stuff. Okay, so moving on to the, the next topic, connection to East Cleveland.

Angelina Bell [00:21:08] Yeah.

Nick Mays [00:21:10] You’Ve, you’ve partnered with Loiter East Cleveland and soon be, and will soon be a part of Maroon Square Cafe opening in East Cleveland. In Fact, we’re in Maroon Square Cafe right now conducting this interview. How did the connection come about between you and Loiter East Cleveland?

Angelina Bell [00:21:35] Ismail and I sat on a board at Case for Nourishing Power. And nourishing power was like a food equity zone that we were working on, trying to develop different areas in the city of Cleveland and the wards to help people have access to healthy fresh food that is traditionally just traditional and culturally relevant with dignity. [00:22:00] So we sat on the board together. That’s how I met him. That’s my first introduction to Mr. Samad. Then one day he invited me to the Chocolate House to tell me about explaining Loiter or East Cleveland the concept, what they’re trying to do and about, you know, social economics and you know, in closed loop economics within resources, like supporting each other with our resources and the concept of like the cafe, the grocery store, the chocolate, the coffee, the spices, the herbs, and like having creatives and art and stuff. [00:22:42] Because Loiter of East Cleveland is houses, all the stuff. That’s. That houses everything. So like we have the food distributing part. So they have Wake Robin, that’s fermented foods and they have a mere prepared food. So like the hummus, tabouli. Then they have rebellious chocolate. So that’s in collaboration with North Atlantic Chocolate. [00:23:07] So that’s chocolate from the Caribbean and the Ivory Coast. Then it’s Nubian Markets in Boston. They have one location, two locations open in the second location. Then we’re in here. Then we had a Lord of East Cleveland Cafe that was down the street. And when I was, when we was there, I roasted the coffee for them there. Then we have Maroon Square. That’s where we’re at right now. And I’m going to actually be here when we open this location. Then we have Loiter HQ and that houses like all our creatives and stuff like that. And we’re gonna have like event center and a roller ring. So with him explaining to me this grand idea and I was like, you know, this would be a great opportunity for East Clevelanders, right? Then this be great opportunity for me because I can bring added value for the things that I have with my coffee and expose people to things that they usually wouldn’t be exposed to at a price point that they’d be able to afford.

Nick Mays [00:24:09] When did you initially start selling product in East Cleveland?

Angelina Bell [00:24:17] When we opened the cafe. What year was that Lord East Cleveland Cafe open? This is 2025, 2024. I don’t know when we open May or June of 2024. I initially start selling coffee at Loiter Cafe, but I have done events at the East Cleveland library and so like drinks and cups, cups of coffees and bags of coffee because they have like holiday events and stuff too.

Nick Mays [00:24:48] And that’s before you started selling coffee.

Angelina Bell [00:24:52] Yeah, coffee. Yeah, because I do like. I do farmers markets. So I have done things at Coit Farmers Market. So that’s in East Cleveland.

Nick Mays [00:25:00] Well, well do to take this time and, and talk that talk, so to speak. Where is your products at? Where do you sell your products?

Angelina Bell [00:25:08] I’m saying most of my products are online because I have coffee subscription. So and I offer like gift subscriptions and off business subscriptions and just basic coffee subscription. Then on Larchmere Adun Spice she sells bags. Purple Barn Stand and Peninsula they sell like flavored coffee and they sell like one pot. So if you just need making one pot of coffee then you can buy coffee at. Then like for drinks is on Buckeye at the Coffee Tavern. They. They buy wholesale coffee and Zora’s House in Columbus was buying coffee for me but unfortunately last Friday they closed due to economical reasons. So. And I have lost like 2, 3 accounts this year due to economics for wholesale because it’s just a bad economy right now. [00:26:02] But every Saturday I’m at Shaker Square Farmers market until January. Then I switch over to Coit’s Farmers Market. Then in the summertime I do Kamm’s Corner on Sundays. Then I do Thursdays. I rotate between Bay Village and Seven Hills. So I do a lot of like community events like the pop up Style and I just bring like hot coffee, iced coffee and bags.

Nick Mays [00:26:34] Why do you think not the Loiter or Maroon Square but your own respective business. Why do you think it’s important to be in a place like East Cleveland supporting through entrepreneurship?

Angelina Bell [00:26:52] To show people in East Sleeping that anything is possible. You can do whatever you put your mind to. You know, it’s so many invisible barriers that people lean into. But once you put your mind to it and determine that you can be a coffee roaster because there’s not many black women that roast coffee and let alone own their roaster because a lot of people rent their roaster goes to like some place like [inaudible] and go roast their coffee there. Versus my coffee business is a home based business. So I roast at home in my basement.

Nick Mays [00:27:28] What’s. What’s that, what’s that process like? make my house hot?

Angelina Bell [00:27:35] Makes my house hot. It’s easy. Like my Roasters ran off a natural gas. I turn it on, I roast, I let it preheat for like 20, 30 minutes to make sure that the oil ro the drum, because there’s a drum roaster, make sure the drum is fully heated. I can roast up to 20 pounds an hour. So I got only got. I got a small roaster, I got a 2K. I don’t have a big roaster. It weighs a ton and a half. It’s only about probably like this big, maybe like this big, but it’s like this tall on the ground. But yeah, it serves this purpose for me and it has treated me very well. So yeah.

Nick Mays [00:28:16] And you said that you with your business and you as entrepreneur, as a black woman, that you want to inspire East Clevelanders and folks beyond. Is that in terms of your business and who you are, is that intentional? 

Angelina Bell [00:28:36] Yes. Because representation is very important. Because when you don’t see yourself or see people who look like you doing something, sometimes you doubt that it’s for you or you’re able to do that in general. But once you start seeing people, once you see someone, it could just be one person that is doing something that you enjoy, love and have a passion for. That gives you some inspiration and some hope that it’s possible.

Nick Mays [00:29:06] The cafe’s vision says, and I saw this on a banner, every visit to the community cafe will be a meaningful investment in the community’s well being and growth, unquote. What does that mean to you personally?

Angelina Bell [00:29:23] So when you come to the cafe, you’re going to have an experience that’s going to make a memory, right? And you’re going to be joyful when you come to spend your money here. So your dollar is not leaving the community in what, three days is going to stay within the community because I can’t think what the statistics is like the black dollar lasts what, one day in the community? Something like that. So within here we’re trying to have more of an in loop economic. So when you come spend your money here, it stays. What’s here in the community is not going up on top of the hill.

Nick Mays [00:30:02] What does. How does that work or what does that mean? It stays in the community.

Angelina Bell [00:30:07] So like the community that we’re building here at Maroon Square, so it’s several different businesses here. So like I’m going to be selling coffee and I’m going to be selling like breakfast biscuits and it may have brisket on it. So we have the smoked boys. I would buy my brisket from them versus going to buy brisket from “Joe Smoes” in front of GFS, you know what I’m saying? [00:30:31] So my dollar is going to him. So did he’s buying his brisket from. Not from GFS or Sysco. He’s gonna go to one of our friends who is a farmer, maybe in Medina or Chardon, who he can buy, you know, a quarter of a cow. And so do you see, like the economics is staying local. [00:30:54] It’s not escaping going to big box stores and stuff like that. So that’s what we’re trying to build, a local economics that stays within the community.

Nick Mays [00:31:06] How does the business [model] support the community or the city of East Cleveland or the neighborhoods?

Angelina Bell [00:31:16] Oh, we’re gonna be having events, hosting events weekly for the community with resource tables, right? Food pantries just have events for kids for after school programs so they won’t have to be in the streets and not have something and they won’t ever be hungry. You know what I’m saying? Because sometimes you just need somewhere to be, not to get in trouble.So if you come here after school, you get a meal, you know, we gonna have tutors, we’re gonna have chess and stuff like that. So you be able to be active in your community and you know, while you’re here, learn a little something and take it home with you and pass it along.

Nick Mays [00:32:00] Wow, that’s, it’s beautiful. How do you view East Cleveland today? As, you know, obviously you’re in a city that has some, some challenges. How do you view East Cleveland today? It’s, it’s people, it’s, it’s challenges and, and potential, I think.

Angelina Bell [00:32:23] I view east Cleveland today as people think of East Cleveland. When people, when you say the word East Cleveland, people like, oh, like, oh, it’s like a stigma to it. But these people are just like us. They go to work every day, they eat, you know what I’m saying? They live in their homes, they do the best they can. [00:32:45] It’s just unfortunate that the local government, the local policies has not always been in their favors. That’s not the people themselves fault. So they working with what they got. So us as Maroon Square, as a collective, we’re here to bring value to the community and to let the people know that, hey, you’re not by yourself. We’re here to help and support. We just need to know how to help and support what is missing. A grocery store is missing. What is missing. Eye doctor is missing. A dentist is missing, right? So how do we bring these resources to the community? So like that’s all it’s about. We’re not looking at nobody as better or worse. It’s just like, okay, it’s a void and, and is a gap. And how do we bridge that gap to make sure that everybody in the Cleveland has the access to the things that they need in a dignified way?

Nick Mays [00:33:41] What would you say to those outside the community who might misunderstand or underestimate East Cleveland and East Cleveland derds? Oh, and I say that. I’ll tell you, I’ll speak to what informs this question. When you look at the political discourse, you look at even scholarship, the media, of course, the heavy focus is blight, the poorest city in the United States. Violence, political crises, corruption. Right.

Angelina Bell [00:34:26] Listen, it’s. They, it’s no worse than no other urban city with the lack of resources. Shaw High School is doing better than the hikes right now because the what, they get a 3.5 in the report card. Cleveland hikes got a 3.0. You know what I’m saying? So, like, they’re resilient, you know, they’re going to persevere regardless, whatever obstacles come their way. So people can think and say whatever they like. But I see the people in the community. I see the kids. I see the mothers and the fathers. I see them persevering, making sure that their children and their families have better opportunities. They may live here in East Cleveland, but their kids may not run the street. Right. They can’t go to school and come home because they have structure and stuff like that. It’s just a few people who make. What does this say? What is that saying? A couple apples make the whole barrel go bad. That’s all.

Nick Mays [00:35:29] Wow. So I want to pivot and talk about collaboration and giving back along with. That’s connected with entrepreneurship. But this is in this area of the interview, I would like to talk About. Mr. Ismail Samad and the loiter organization. How did Mr. Samad and the organization shape your approach to business and the social impact or you know what? Better yet, can you talk about the Loiter organization? It’s founding. What’s the aim? What’s the goal? And I know a part of it. It’s an interesting model. It’s. It’s entrepreneurship, but it’s also socioeconomic.

Angelina Bell [00:36:24] Social enterprise.

Nick Mays [00:36:25] Social enterprise.

Angelina Bell [00:36:26] I wish he could explain it. He, he could explain it better to me. I just text him, see where he was at. Okay. Mr. Samad is from East Cleveland. He’s the East Clevelander. He actually Lives like right around the corner. This is where he grew up at, this is where he from, this is where he live at with his wife and kids now. So during COVID he came back home and he started loiter East Cleveland with his sister Elima. And their whole purpose was to start a social enterprise to bring the wealth back to East Cleveland by East Cleveland. So that was his whole purpose, to bring the wealth back by the people, not have it extracted and have it be gentrified by big corporate developments that want to put up half a million dollar homes, then push out the people who’ve been here for the last 50, 60 years because they’re not able to afford their property taxes any longer. So I will break that’s like in a nutshell his whole reason why he came back then East Cleveland loiter is it’s a social enterprise. So it has different parts like I explained earlier, like, like Maroon Square, then Wake Robin, the Chocolate house, Nubian market. So everything is like working together.

Nick Mays [00:37:50] What inspired you or what informed your collaboration with Mr. Samad?

Angelina Bell [00:37:59] With meeting him and telling me his mission. It aligns with Humble Morning’s Coffee company about giving back, right? About the impact that my brand have on the women led farmers that I’m buying from, right? So because I want to leave a impact, I want to make sure that their quality of life is better. So that’s the whole mission of loiter is to improve the quality of life of everyone involved, right? The people who are patronizing the business. We want you to leave better than you left, better informed, right? Have a better spirit, have a happy memory. You can revisit the people who are collaborating, right? So we can be able to support each other. Because some people are on different, I don’t want to say different levels have different journeys. So we have different experiences and different resources. So as us as a collective, we can share our all the resources that we have. So we’re not gatekeeping for everybody to be as successful as everybody as each other. There’s no competition here. It’s nothing to leverage because you know like, you know like on the body you need the head, the arms and the legs because that’s the whole for can function as one. So loiter is the body and we are the people are the arms and the legs and the head. So we got to function as one where we can move and be successful.

Nick Mays [00:39:15] What have you learned with collaboration with Loiter throughout.

Angelina Bell [00:39:21] Being patient? I’m not the most patient person because I’m like let’s do it. I come up with an idea. I’m like, oh, I won’t do it, right? And I’m like, you know, and being patient and learning that me growing up in Twinsburg, I have different experiences, I have different resources, and. And I. I’m able to pivot a little differently than someone who might have grown up in East Cleveland, right? And. And I had to be patient because I can be like, I could call somebody and be like, oh, let’s do A, B and C is going to be fifteen hundred dollars. You know, let’s do it on Friday. And they’d be like, they may not have. Have that resource available by Friday. In my head, I was like, you know, borrow it. Take a personal loan, borrow your life insurance, take some equity out your house, right? You know, or get a line of credit. They may not have those same resources because they may not have always been.They may have not been educated on that. Those things are possible. You get life insurance, you could borrow off your life insurance and do stuff like that. If you have a home, you got equity in your home. Borrow a few, your equity, right? But if you were not taught those things, you don’t know those things are available. So I had to slow down and realize that I have had a different upbringing in a lifestyle and understand that everybody doesn’t receive the same love, support, and education. So I had to be patient.

Nick Mays [00:41:06] Whether it’s through your collaboration with Loiter or just your own.

Angelina Bell [00:41:11] Say that again. I didn’t hear you.

Nick Mays [00:41:13] Whether it was through your collaboration with Loiter or if it was through your own work, your own mission, what have you learned about using business as a tool for social change.

Angelina Bell [00:41:28] Using this business as social change? It’s about, like I said, about the impact, right? It’s about improving people’s, literally, the quality of life. So if I can open up, if I start here at Maroon square, and in 18 months, 22 months, I can be able to open up down the street and have my own storefront. I’ll be able to hire employees.

Angelina Bell [00:41:53] So now I’m creating jobs, giving people opportunities, and I can show other young people or other people in general how to roast coffee, right? So they can take a skill that they didn’t have before, and they can take that and take it to their own business if they want to be a coffee roaster themselves. So it’s about creating more jobs, creating opportunities, and those opportunities will create better quality of life for someone, because that’s all there’s about, just better quality of life.

Nick Mays [00:42:26] So you’re collaborating with with women in In Africa, South South America, Central America. And you’re selling coffee, you’re doing work in Cleveland, East Cleveland. Have you, have you ever, have you stopped to think that you’re connecting black people in the world with East Clevelanders in Cleveland through coffee?

Angelina Bell [00:42:56] Yeah, yeah, definitely. Because this is a connection. That’s why, you know, from seed to conception, right? So I can tell this, tell the story to the people where the coffee’s from, the origin, who grew it when it was harvest, how it was dry when I received it. My roasting process is a tradition. Coffee is a ritual, right. We both walked in, we both had cups of coffee because that’s how we start our day, right? It’s like, oh, that first sip is the quiet moment before we start, before the chaos starts. So I’m connecting the people of East Cleveland to these people that they usually probably wouldn’t have connections to in rural parts of the world and tell them, they’re telling these ladies stories to people in the city for they can understand, like, hey, coffee and chocolate, stuff like that. Those are luxury items that our people grow.

Nick Mays [00:43:53] What are some other endeavors that loiter and you in that partnership seeks to do in East Cleveland?

Angelina Bell [00:44:03] What other endeavors? Like eventually I’m going to move my roastery from, become a home based business and bring it to East Cleveland. So I’m going to bring all my equipment to East Cleveland. So my headquarters will be in East Cleveland eventually. Then with that opportunity, it will create jobs for people to come roast and stuff like that. And then I’ll be able to, if somebody do want to have their own coffee brand, I can rent out my roaster or they can use it and sell their own brand and stuff like that.

Nick Mays [00:44:37] Yeah, that’s another thing. I don’t think we talked about that. Like, you know, business means jobs in the local community.

Angelina Bell [00:44:45] Yeah, exactly. This is going to create jobs for, for people in the community. We have people come in all the time, want to know when we go open, how can they, you know, apply what positions we’re going to have and like, what’s, what is this going to be? So it’s going to be so many different people in here, right? So me personally, I’m going to need someone to work with because I can’t work six days a week from seven to three. I don’t want to. So that was just gives, that gives the opportunity for someone to come in who hasn’t, you know, who needs a job, who wants a job and needs a job and I can train them how to be a barista, how to run the espresso machine, how to make it pull over. Right. And like how to make the simple serves that we’re going to be selling and stuff like that. So. And that would give them a skill set. So if they did ever leave the neighborhood and move somewhere else, they can go apply to get a job at another cafe or, you know, at another coffee shop. Because it’s about added value. Sometimes people just need the opportunity to get the vow, to get the skills so they can have that value.

Nick Mays [00:45:52] Humble Mornings. The name.

Angelina Bell [00:45:54] Yeah.

Nick Mays [00:45:55] What’s the story behind it?

Angelina Bell [00:45:57] Oh, I’m not the most humble person, so I’m humble Mornings because humility comes in the morning and I thank Jesus, like, just be humble because I could be an area pompous asshole if I wanted to be.

Nick Mays [00:46:09] But serious, where did you come up with the name?

Angelina Bell [00:46:12] And me and my cousin Robert was talking and I was like, I was like, what? What do I, I was like, what? What’s the morning? How does the morning make you feel? And you, you get him is you’re humbled because you woke up in the morning, right? Humility comes in the morning. Joy comes in the morning. So we was just working through the words, wordplay. I was like, humility, that’s not the humble mornings, right? So then we sat on humble mornings, me and my cousin Robert. It was just like a humble morning. A humble morning, right? And Humble mornings is catchy and it’s, and it’s nice because your morning, most people mornings is filled with humility because first and foremost you’re thankful that you woke up to have another day, right? Then the coffee is just a ritual of like, oh, before the chaos starts, let me sit and sip my coffee. Before my day start, before the riff raff start and the chaos and the noise start. So that’s how I came up with Humble Morning. Just wordplay.

Nick Mays [00:47:16] So, okay, so the future, broader vision and looking ahead, what do you hope for Humble Morning’s coffee company? What do you hope it becomes not just as a business but, but a movement or a model in the future.

Angelina Bell [00:47:40] I want Humble Mornings to be like a legacy. I want people to, when they hear the brand, they know it’s safe, right? It’s a safe place. They could come and be them, be their authentic selves. They can get some ethically sourced coffee, have a great experience, have a slow moment, right? Know that it’s going to be always opportunity. Eventually I probably become like employee owned. Once I build it up enough so I’ll be able to like step away from it and be able to just retire.

Nick Mays [00:48:18] Do you have any aspirations to like expand or grow or like where it kind of in the future with it or add on to your entrepreneurship?

Angelina Bell [00:48:30] I want to stay with the subscription base because most of my business is subscription based. So and I want to serve more like cafes and restaurants and sell coffee to more cafes and restaurants. Right. I don’t want to have like, like so many storefronts and stuff like that because I want to be able to own the buildings. You can’t own a building in a plaza.

Nick Mays [00:48:55] When you say subscription based, can you unpack that or explain that?

Angelina Bell [00:49:00] So okay, so like I got office subscriptions. So you get five pounds of coffee every four to six weeks. It gets delivered to you. You sign up online and you pick your frequency, how often you want it and it gets delivered automatically. I have the same for this. The 12 ounce bags too. For one pound bags too, you can get weekly, bi weekly or monthly. Right. Or you can buy a gift subscription. So like if you wanted to give a friend six months of coffee, you could buy a prepaid subscription. They get coffee delivered to them for six months in a row. So I wanted, my whole business model is more of like this subscription base.

Nick Mays [00:49:38] And they do that through website or social media.

Angelina Bell [00:49:41] Yeah, my website, my website you can order online because like I got bean subscription, office subscription, then I have Nabisco pods. So you could get like Nabisco Pods, you get 26, 40, 60. So yeah, I got different types of subscriptions that you can order.

Nick Mays [00:50:00] When people taste your coffee, what story or message do you hope they feel connected to?

Angelina Bell [00:50:06] I hope they taste the craftsmanship and the passion and love behind it. It’s not burnt, it’s not smoky, it’s not dark. It tastes just like supposed to taste. Each origin offers a different flavor. African coffee is going to be nice and bright, fruity, citrusy South American coffee going to be nice, chocolatey, pipe tobacco, hazelnut, Central American. You’re going to get like that milk chocolate, that stone fruit. So each coffee is going to offer a different experience and everybody has a different palette.

Nick Mays [00:50:39] You said traceability in our last conversation. You mentioned that traceability to the coffee was important to you.

Angelina Bell [00:50:47] Yeah.

Nick Mays [00:50:47] Why?

Angelina Bell [00:50:48] Because that’s why I do single origin. Single origin is pretty much just traceability. So I can tell you exactly where it came from, right. I can tell you their name, the location, the day it was harvest, the day was shipped to me, the day I received it. Right. Then the day I roast it and the day I’m handed it to you for you can know the timeline and understand the process and the quality and the story behind the bean.

Nick Mays [00:51:17] What does community mean to you? Locally, globally, and even spiritually?

Angelina Bell [00:51:21] Connection. Connection. Just connecting. Supporting each other, loving each other. Connection. Community. Because you need a community to grow, especially in 2025. A lot of us live in isolation. When you live in isolation, you get a lot of depression. You don’t feel as loved or as welcomed because that’s what isolation brings you. But if you live within community, you have that support system, that understanding, that connection that all humans yearn for. But the society we live in now has made us all be individuals versus villagers.

Nick Mays [00:52:04] And finally, you have a lot left to go. But what do you want your legacy to be in the end?

Angelina Bell [00:52:17] I’m not sure that I was. That I was a good person, that I cared for community. I added value to everyone’s life that I came across, that I was able to support somebody in some shape, form or fashion if it’s in like a resource or physically volunteering or just some advice.

Nick Mays [00:52:38] Well, Ms. Bell, well said. Thank you so much for contributing to this project and congratulations on your endeavor and I appreciate your work and your entrepreneurship as you also support community and do the work of humanity.

Angelina Bell [00:52:57] Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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