LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles coffee shop is celebrating Black History Month by selling a specialty roast with beans from Ethiopia. Proceeds from all sales will go to the Tiyya Foundation. The initiative aims to amplifyi local Black voices and creating change.

Santiago Garfunkel, the owner of Tiago, said he wanted to give back to his community through his beans. With the Black Lives Matter movement assuming a national profile, he said he wanted to raise awareness and give back.

"After everything that has happened and is happening today with Black History Month, it seemed to us was very fitting. It aligned with who we are and what we wanted to support. We wanted to make an impact. We wanted to help someone we know and someone who is local," Garfunkel said.

The person Garfunkel knows is Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, director of the Tiyya Foundation, which supports families of refugees, immigrants, and displaced indigenous communities.

"Tiyya means 'my love' in my family's language. We speak Afan Oromo," Hussein-Cattan said.

She was born in a refugee camp after her family fled Ethiopia. After moving to California, she wanted to help other refugees and immigrants.

"We've done programming around all of the resources you need to navigate the system and succeed in the U.S. We do this out of experience. As refugees, we know first-hand the obstacles you have to overcome," Hussein-Cattan said.

She continues to honor her story through her restaurant Flavors from Afar in Little Ethiopia. She employs refugees who need work and uses this to shine a light on Tiyya. She will also be selling the commemorative coffee.

"I think it's a beautiful homage to the Black diaspora because coffee grains do come from Ethiopia," Hussein-Cattan said.

She said it means a lot to her that other voices want to join the call to action and continue the conversation about how Black lives matter.

"I, as a Black woman, I feel seen. I feel understood, and it has helped me become visible in the work that I do—telling people that refugees aren't scary and immigrants matter. Blackness is global. We are in different parts of the world, all over the world," Hussein-Cattan said.

The specialty roast will be sold at Tiago in Hollywood and Flavors from Afar in Little Ethiopia in February.