On stepping into the colorful, eclectic and noisy world of Little Cafe Poca Cosa, 151 N. Stone Ave., you will be greeted almost immediately by Sandra or Marcela Dávila - the sisters who own the place - and you will notice a whiteboard on the wall just inside the entry.
As of the middle of last week, an announcement on the whiteboard read:
"In April and May you gave …
• $100 to home for the elderly in Empalme
• $100 to help with school for young girl in village
• $150 to shelter in Guayamas
• $150 food bags and for people in need
• 6 bags of clothes to Casa Maria
Thanks for all you do! Donation jar on the wall."
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The donations have been part of the cafe's character since before it moved to its current location about five years ago, Sandra Dávila said.
The whiteboard was an addition after the move, she said.
And the sisters don't collect only money. They accept clothing, old toys, blankets, towels - pretty much anything people have lying around the house that they don't use or don't want anymore - except electronics.
Most of the collection goes to Mexico, where Dávila spends much time in a small fishing village outside San Carlos, called La Manga.
"Everybody dumps stuff off here," she said. "I take it with me."
Sometimes Dávila doesn't get all the way to La Manga before she sees someone in need, and she leaves items wherever she thinks they will get the most use.
"Whoever gets it needs it more than whoever gave it," she said.
The donation jar on the counter averages around $400 a month, which helps pay for some La Manga kids to attend upper school outside their village.
"The fishing village is poverty personified, so the need is always there," Dávila said.
Sometimes, when she has a pile of donations and won't make it to Mexico for a while, she hauls a load over to Casa Maria, which provides services for the impoverished here in Tucson.
Little Cafe Poca Cosa's clientele play a huge part in what the Dávilas are able to accomplish.
If they have a specific need to fill, they can post it on their wall, and customers will offer help in short order.
Cafe regular Roseann Devlin, 35, offered on Wednesday to donate a case of bottled water for the Dávilas to distribute.
The case came free when Devlin renewed her membership with Costco Wholesale Corp. But Devlin prefers not to drink bottled water because she doesn't like the amount of waste generated by all those empty plastic bottles.
"If it's going to be given to the homeless or to people without potable water in Mexico, I don't have an ethical issue with that," she said.
Though she had never donated to Little Cafe Poca Cosa before, the company's giving attitude is one of the reasons Devlin likes to eat there, she said.
"They have a corporate conscience," she said. "I infer they believe all lives have value."
Devlin said she has seen the restaurant give small cups of rice and beans along with a drink of water to homeless people before sending them on their way.
Dávila attributes the behavior to an overall feeling of family she and her sister like to maintain in their corner of the universe.
"The 'What comes around, goes around' theory does exist," she said. "It's a humanity thing. We're all in this together."
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or 807-8464.
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