It started with coffee and events. Now nonprofit dreams of Asian district in KC
Café Cà Phê and Hella Good Deeds began with coffee, festivals and community gatherings. Now, the two sister organizations are working toward building permanent infrastructure for Kansas City’s Asian community.
That vision includes mental health access, small-business support, a physical headquarters and a long-term plan for an Asian cultural district in the city. For Jackie Nguyen and Hella Good Deeds founder and executive director, Béty Lê Shackelford, the work is rooted in a need they both felt after moving to Kansas City: the absence of a visible, centralized place for Asian residents to gather, celebrate, receive support and feel at home.
Café Cà Phê started in 2020 as Nguyen’s pandemic pivot after her Broadway tour of “Miss Saigon” shut down. What began as Vietnamese coffee soon became a cultural meeting point for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Kansas City. Hella Good Deeds grew from that same outreach work and officially became a nonprofit in 2024.
“Café Cà Phê started because I didn’t know where to go as an Asian person,” Nguyen said. “I didn’t know where to gather or feel safe, and so I created that space for myself.”
Carving out space for Asian Americans in KC
The need became clearer during the Stop Asian Hate movement and after the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings. Lê Shackelford said a Café Cà Phê regular named Chi approached Nguyen after noticing that other cities were holding events to support Asian communities, but she could not find a similar gathering in Kansas City.
“That day, over 500 people showed up, which to me was so incredible, but also really bittersweet because here was the first time I saw so many Asian people,” Lê Shackelford said. “It was the first time I spoke Vietnamese in public. And yet we were all here for such a tragic reason.”
That moment shaped the next phase of the work. Lê Shackelford wanted to find ways to gather the community in times of celebration, not only in response to violence or pain. Under Café Cà Phê, the group began hosting annual cultural events, including Lunar New Year, the AANHPI Heritage Festival and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.
But as the programming grew, the structure became harder to sustain. Café Cà Phê was still a for-profit coffee shop, and Nguyen was using money left after business expenses to support community events. Lê Shackelford was also balancing the work with motherhood and her role as Mayor Quinton Lucas’ political director.
By the end of summer 2024, Hella Good Deeds was incorporated as a 501(c)(3). The nonprofit took on the community-building and infrastructure side of the mission, while Café Cà Phê continued to serve as a cultural and business anchor.
“That’s why we say we are Café Cà Phê’s nonprofit sisters, because I don’t necessarily see it as a separate thing,” Lê Shackelford said. “I don’t see it as one under or over the other. I really see it as two sister organizations going towards the same mission in very different ways that complement each other.”
On May 2 Hella Good Deeds held their sixth annual Art of Being AANHPI festival, gathering dozens of Asian American business around the metro at the Zhou B Art Center. The event saw people of many backgrounds united to experience a diverse turnout of Asian businesses that many in the community did not see just several years prior.
“I moved here for work from California and didn’t really expect there to be a lot of Vietnamese or Asian culture here,” Phan said. “But I have heard multiple people from outside the Asian culture tell me about Hella Good Deeds, so I decided to come by and it is definitely more than I expected.”
Café Cà Phê and Hella Good Deeds have become a driving force throughout the month holding weekly events around AANHPI month.
For Christina Conrad, a local private chef of Vietnamese decent, attended and served Vietnamese dishes. She believes these moments to come together and build community are paramount for minority entrepreneurs who may feel isolated.
“I think in a world so big it is important to feel seen,” said Conrad. “We get to come here and there are a lot of other Asian chefs and it not be competition. It is like, I see you and you see me and we support each other.”
Hella Good Deeds expands community work
Hella Good Deeds moved into its first physical space in March through Kansas City’s Open Doors program, a city initiative created in preparation for FIFA World Cup 2026 to match local entrepreneurs, organizations and businesses with vacant properties.
The space, across the street from the coffee shop, gives the nonprofit a more permanent base after years of moving between partner locations such as Café Cà Phê, Tian Tea House and Zhou B Art Center. Lê Shackelford said the back of the building is being developed as Hella Good Deeds’ headquarters for workshops and community programming. The front is planned as a business incubator and year-round vendor space.
A key part of that work is Jade Market, a business development concept that supports entrepreneurs from the idea stage to pop up opportunities and, eventually, more established retail partnerships. Lê Shackelford said the goal is to help Asian entrepreneurs build the skills and confidence needed to apply for larger platforms such as Made in KC.
“So Jade Market is really the concept that we pitched to the Open Doors program,” Lê Shackelford said. “Because we hope to show people when they come here for World Cup that, yeah, there is an Asian community here, and there is more culture here beyond what people assume.”
Hella Good Deeds is also expanding into mental health support. Through the Hella Healing Fund, the nonprofit helps people access free mental health services with Asian providers. The program works with Asian Mental Health KC and currently has funding to cover two people per quarter. Each participant receives eight one-on-one sessions over three months, with the provider billing Hella Good Deeds directly.
The nonprofit also hosted Hella Creative Healing at Tian Tea House, where participants used art prompts in a low-pressure setting with a mental health provider present. Lê Shackelford said the goal is to make mental health feel more approachable while addressing generational trauma in Asian communities.
“I think generational trauma is something that’s really deep in the Asian community that is only beginning to be talked about,” Lê Shackelford said. “And so with mental health, how do we take that pressure away from people so that they can just experience what it is to feel safe?”
For Nguyen, coffee remains central to the larger mission. Vietnamese coffee is not just the product that launched Café Cà Phê. She describes it as a cultural practice shaped by strength, survival, ritual and gathering.
Nguyen, a first-generation Vietnamese American whose mother was a Vietnam War refugee, said the shop reflects her own lens. She is not trying to recreate Vietnam exactly. She is sharing a Vietnamese American perspective in a region where she said Asian communities are not as visible as they are in places such as California or New York.
“I’m not just a coffee shop,” Nguyen said. “We’re a place that our community needs to practice our culture.”
What’s next for Café Cà Phê and Hella Good Deeds?
Both Café Cà Phê and Hella Good Deeds, at 913 E. 5th St, are also pushing toward a larger dream: an Asian cultural district in Kansas City. Lê Shackelford said Columbus Park has historical ties to Vietnamese refugee resettlement after the war and already includes Asian businesses such as Vietnam Café, Pho Lan, Tian Tea House and Café Cà Phê.
She said Kansas City does not have a Chinatown or a true central Asian district. While Little Saigon exists in Gladstone, she said there is no equivalent cultural hub within Kansas City itself.
Her long-term vision includes an Asian gathering place, an Asian Development Fund, and a district where Asian entrepreneurs, artists and residents can find support. She wants the city to see Asian culture not only through the lens of marginalization, but also as an economic and cultural driver.
“My vision is for Kansas City to be the epicenter of Asian culture in the Midwest,” Lê Shackelford said. “So that no matter where you are in the Midwest, if you are hungry for Asian culture and Asian community, you know if you go to Kansas City, you’ll find it.”
Nguyen believes what comes next will require support, events and stronger connections between nonprofits doing community work. She wants Café Cà Phê and Hella Good Deeds to keep serving as entry points for people who are looking for culture, care and belonging.
“I would love to see a little bit more city support in the future, meaning having citywide events, city-sponsored events that cater to our community,” Nguyen said. “What I would also love for the future is safety and harmony, and a way to bring all of the nonprofits that do incredible work for this community together.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 6:31 AM.
