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Noblit discusses artwork by local artist Michael Hammons, which helps pay for water filtration.[/caption]
Founder and philanthropist Amber Noblit opened the doors to the nonprofit Mission Village Market in April 2015. She said she wanted something more than a chance to change her Facebook profile picture to one of her volunteering in a developing country. She wanted to sleep at night.
Noblit said she got tired of witnessing organizations through her own volunteer efforts that were raising funds to pad the CEOs’ wallets while the children who were supposed to be the recipients of the funds were eating one bowl of rice a day. She was frustrated with organizations that seemed to have good intentions, but when she would check on them a year later, she would find that nothing had changed.
“I saw a lot of organizations that were really flashy,” she said. “But what are they doing with the money?”
Not one of the 15 people who work at Mission Village Market & Coffee Shop in Old Town Spring earns a paycheck. The market and cafe, which offers all things fair trade, including hemp handbags, jewelry, oil paintings, and homemade bakery items, is entirely volunteer-based.
