Today we’d like to introduce you to Elaine Marumoto-perez
Hi elaine, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Before starting Kansha my younger brother and I were working lots of odd jobs kind of collecting money to donate to different charities that we believed in. James worked at a spaghetti shop and ramen place. I was taking jobs teaching piano, tutoring, cleaning houses, waitressing. We were raised in a Japanese American church so I think we both kind of felt of sense of giving back. We were blessed with the ability to work and we just wanted to help those who needed it. At one point we both felt like we wanted to open a business to dedicate the giving instead of us giving from our personal paychecks. There were great examples of this like Mission Chinese Food who was giving 75 cents of every dish to charity and we loved that. James was making ice cream at the house at the time and we knew we could run an ice cream store without hiring anyone so we just ran with it. We just celebrated our 10 year anniversary and we are still operating the shop just the two of us. Recently hired our cousin to help out a couple times a week.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly looking back, I think it has been overall very smooth considering the fact that we didn’t go to school for any of this, we didn’t have the capital to begin with, and we had zero experience. We got the shop up and running, we made it through Covid, and we’re still standing strong. The road is long, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Kansha Creamery?
We are a small family ice cream shop on the border of Torrance and Gardena. We hand make our ice cream every day with great ingredients and love. Our shop donates 75 cents of all ice cream sold to charity. Currently we are working with Miry’s List, an organization that helps welcome refugee familys to their new home and creates a strong community around them as they navigate their new lives in the states. Since opening our doors in 2015 we have raised half a million dollars to charities that we care about.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I think we all are gifted a plan and that’s a huge part of life in general. We just need to be in tune with it and run with it. Sometimes we’ll derail from this plan and take a few turns before we find it again, but it’s always there for us. There are so many things that aren’t in our control it would be diminishing to say that we got to where we are with grit and hardwork. I hope we remain grateful to all the “good luck” we are faced with and are open to grow through all the “bad luck” that comes our way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kanshacreamery.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanshacreamery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kanshacreamery
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kansha-creamery-torrance
