The Barista Family: Parents Of 11 Open Coffee Shop To Give Foster Kids Jobs

The Senters studied at Northern Arizona University, and the two met when they were both working at an after-school program. They soon discovered that they shared a burning passion for the same thing.

The couple wed in 2007 and it was just a couple of years after that they welcomed their first foster child into their home. One of the Senter’s foster children spoke to Brian Brant of People magazine in March 2024. 

Before she’d met Ryan, Pima’s childhood had featured little in the way of stability. By the age of just 14 she’d experienced six different foster homes — hardly a recipe for a happy childhood.

Ryan and Pima were soon chatting to each other. They obviously hit it off from the first, and the foster carer invited her to his home for dinner. At that point the Senters had four children in their home.

Pima remembered the occasion when Ryan had first introduced the idea of joining the Senter family. It was when she was sharing that family dinner to which he had invited her.

Pima recalled the question Ryan had asked once he’d sat down beside her at the table. It was, “How would you like to stay here?” The youngster remembered her reply had been , “I was like, ‘Just for the summer?’” 

Now Pima is a married mother herself with her own child. And she gives much of the credit for this happy ending to the Senter family. The way they opened their home and their hearts to her set her on the right track.

The year 2016 was a big one for the Senters because that’s when they decided to launch their own fostering and adoption agency, titled “Ohana.” That’s great choice of name, since Ohana is in fact the Hawaiian word for family.

Ryan explained the motivation for the founding of Ohana to Brant. “We didn't think we could have any more kids in our own home, but we wanted to be able to provide a home and a family-like environment for these kids,” he told the reporter. 

At first Ohana started out with just one home, but Ryan told Brant that now they run 45 of them. That first center took in ten boys who were cared for by six staff. Now their 45 homes have a staff of more than 500.

The website also gives an insight into both the ethos and the ambition that the Senters have for Ohana. “At Ohana”, the website declares, “we are young and scrappy. We are growing and our history is still unfolding.”

The Ohana website also celebrates some of the agency’s achievements. A story from February 2024 recounts how in a period of just four months Ohana successfully found sets of adoptive parents for four youngsters.

Another website story showcases the success of one of the foster children from the Ohana world. Sarah, a high school senior, was named as “Student of the Year”, an honor bestowed by the district school board. 

A report from Christmas 2022 highlights the involvement of local communities in Ohana foster homes. Dinner was laid on by five police officers with a special guest, Miss Arizona. Isaiah, Ohana’s community engagement manager, gave his perspective on the celebration.

Isaiah continued, “There’s so much hurt and bitterness bottled up; it just takes one person to come to them and show some love sometimes in order to change their perspective”.

But this event also exposed some of the pain and hardship suffered by children who end up in foster care, obviously through no fault of their own. The children had been invited to ask questions they wanted the cops to answer.

Isaiah said, “My favorite question that one of our girls had asked was, ‘Why did you take my parents from me and hurt other people?’” That was clearly no softball question to put to their guests and had obviously been asked from a position of hurt.

Isaiah described how one of the officers had reacted. “This question allowed an officer to apologize on behalf of poor use of authority, but they also used this question to bring better understanding to the girls.”

There was another heartwarming story from the 2022 Christmas period, an event called Serve Day held in the town of Laveen in Arizona, where one of the Ohana homes is located. On this occasion Ohana staff had been working with a local group of volunteers. 

The website offers another perspective on the way Ohana works via an account from Abby. She worked on the Ohana Internship Program, which develops young people so they can become future Ohana leaders. 

Abby also offered some advice for anyone who might be thinking about becoming an Ohana intern. “Be yourself, go in with an open mind and heart, be excited, and spread love”, Abby said.

And here’s another success story featured on the Ohana website. This one tells the tale of Malikah, who joined the Ohana family in 2018. This 2022 piece recounts, “Throughout Malikah’s first few years in Ohana’s care, we saw such a huge improvement in his interpersonal skills and relationships.”

One key factor that helped Malikah on his path of personal development was sport, in particular football. As the website puts it, “This passion for football also gave him an incentive to go to school, get good grades, and attend all his classes”.

But Malikah’s story took a darker turn after he left his foster home when he hit 18. He moved into a transitional living home, but things began to go wrong for him. Luckily he’d kept in touch with Ohana and it was to staff there that he turned for help when the going got tough.

When Malikah got in touch with Ohana, he had a story of trials and tribulations to tell. “Hey do you have a minute, I need your help, and I don’t have anyone else”, he said. “I’m going to be homeless and I have a baby on the way in one week.”

The website describes the group’s reaction to Malikah’s problems. “We knew we had to help. We couldn’t let Malikah become another foster-care statistic”. Ohana staff swung into action and found Malikah a home via a partner organization, Living Streams Church.

These tales of the youngsters fostered by the Ohana homes come from 2023 and the year before. But it was in 2022 that Ohana faced a truly dramatic challenge. Writing on the Ohana website, Ryan described what happened. 

“I feel like we are a rubber band being stretched to its limit and it is by God’s grace it didn’t snap”, he added. So just what had happened? Ryan explained, “We started this year with 15 homes, serving 50 foster kids and 35 special-needs adults”. 

As Ryan put it, “But God had different plans. I had no idea by the end of this year we would be providing housing to over 220 foster kids and special-needs adults with over 500 employees. Gulp”. It had indeed been a huge and sudden increase in service provision.

So Arizona’s Department of Child Safety approached Ohana and asked for the group’s help in solving this emergency. As Ryan pointed out, “Many of these kids have been in the same home for almost ten years, with these homes being their source of love and safety”.

Ohana had a period of just three weeks to accomplish this handover of responsibility for the 112 foster children. But somehow the organization managed to achieve the transition in the time available.

Ryan and Sara had spent years of their life founding and running the Ohana fostering outfit as well as personally taking children in need into their own home. But now they set about creating something different: a café.

So why would a fostering group open a cafe? Speaking to People magazine, Ryan explained the thinking behind the enterprise. “We train kids in the foster care system,” he said.

The idea for the café came from Ryan’s realization “that some of the older kids [Ohana] was working with were struggling with mental-health issues, including one of my sons.”

One of those employed at Hanai is 19-year-old Mateja Andre. Speaking to People, she said that she’d first been adopted when she had been just ten months old. But her mom had come to the conclusion that she couldn’t look after Mateja any more when the girl had reached the age of 17.

Not long after her move into the Ohana family, Mateja landed a position at Hanai as a member of the “brew crew”. She says that when she was interviewed for the job, the Hanai team “didn't know that I was from Ohana, which was pretty cool.”

Mateja told People, “Hanai gave me somewhere where I felt like I was needed, somewhere where I could really just distract myself but also learn how to budget when you did make money, things like that.”

She explained just how well her life has blossomed since she started working at Hanai. “I have a daughter now, and I’m married, and we just bought our first house. I am very excited,” Mateja said. 

So if you happen to be in Laveen, you should certainly drop into Hanai for a meal or a coffee. The Phoenix New Times is in no doubt about the delights of the café, praising the “Caribbean-influenced menu with a hint of Spanish flair, which is equally unique and colorful.”