- Video shows how La Boba Loca, a family-owned business in Arvin, allows the community to come together.
- In addition to providing a safe space for the community to get their favorite drinks, the shop also provides job opportunities to high school students.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
For about year now, this boba spot has been serving drinks and acai bowls to the community. I sat down with the owner to discuss the beginnings of La Boba Loca and how they've been giving back to the community.
"Here in Arvin, growing up there wasn't anything," said Jaime Perez, owner of the shop. "There wasn't like, 'let's go hang out over here,' that wasn't a thing."
He told me that prior to opening his shop, he and his family would always have to travel to Bakersfield to obtain their favorite drinks.
This is a common sound customers hear going into Perez's business. Prior to La Boba Loca, Perez told me that the community lacked a place for teenagers to come together or simply work on their homework.
"I have families come in and drop their kids off and they'll buy a boba here and there and they hang out for an hour or two hours and then their parents pick them back up it's like a place where they can just drop them off and then they get together," he said.
Dani Santoyo is one of those customers that like to come with friends and family.
"It's affordable and it's a nice walk if you wanted to come from your house. If you live in a small town and you have nice place to come and hang out it's a walk away," said Santoyo.
But teenagers aren't just coming here to hang-out. Perez told me that when the business was starting off, it was run by him and his family. Now that the business is taking off, he said he is opening doors to high school student that want to work.
"I feel like it's an incentive for them to do better in school," said Perez. "I had one of the parents come and tell me, 'Thank you for giving him a job now he's not out going with his friends and coming home late at night.'"
In addition to jobs, Perez told me he will soon be partnering with schools to offer incentives to students for their academic achievements. If you'd like to learn more about La Boba Loca, click here to visit their website.
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