Co-Founder and CEO of Last Mile Café in Grand Rapids
Arick was born and lived most of his life in Grand Rapids. After attending Michigan Tech and traveling, he moved back to Grand Rapids. He was thrilled to open a coffee shop with his wife Sarah in the area where he grew up.
“I wanted to provide a place where people feel comfortable and enjoy really good coffee!” he said of Last Mile Café at 1006 Hall Street, just a block east of Kalamazoo Avenue, in the 49507 zip code.
Last Mile Café just celebrated its two-year anniversary in December 2024.
He once visited a coffee farm in Vietnam. “Respecting their values and how farmers are treated is extremely important to me.”
Before the café opened, Arick rented a space to package coffee for sales online and in person at farmer’s markets. He believes strongly in relationships and enjoys people – not only hearing stories from those who come into the coffee shop and are part of this community, but also stories from farmers that produce the coffee beans he purchases.
As Arick grows in his business acumen, he wants to empower the farmers so they are not taken advantage of. Understanding more about the farmers and what they face changed some of his thoughts and assumptions. One example, “I thought it might be better for a farmer to sell to a big company with a large amount of coffee than to a small business owner like me.”
He encourages people to contribute to causes that are important to them. He says each person can take actions that matter and use their personal and business purchasing power to make a difference at home and beyond.
Currently Last Mile Café gives 1% of all sales to community needs (e.g. neighborhood clean-up) and 1% to environmental needs (e.g. Plaster Creek restoration). Arick would like to see more companies engaging in those practices. Their values are environmental sustainability, ethical treatment of people, and building trust and transparency.
WMCAT (West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology) will be honoring Arick in March with an Award for Inspiration. He was a student in the first Teen Arts + Tech Program class. There is where he began gaining the confidence, creative ambition, and community connection as a teen that manifest in his life today.
Drop in or buy online and discover a new favorite coffee at Last Mile Café
Values
Environmental Sustainability
Our sustainability efforts are guided by our goal to set an example for the industry when it comes to protecting natural resources and reducing our impact on the environment.
The Ethical Treatment of People
We believe that all people deserve respect and dignity.
Building Trust & Transparency
We promise to be honest and sincere in our words and in our actions to allow our community to make informed and conscious choices.
Meet Two People Who Inspire Arick Davis
Skot Welch is friend and supporter to Arick. “Skot Welch doesn’t let the world happen to him. He mentors adults and children and makes himself accessible to those asking him for support.”
Skot is the Principal/Founder of Global Bridgebuilders (GBB), a firm focusing on organizational development, cultural transformation and inclusion. Global Bridgebuilders is an international team providing services to enterprises across the globe. GBB bases its work in the core belief that inclusion is a business discipline and that it should be leveraged across all that the enterprise does. Skot is an author and also the founder of The Mosaic Film Experience in Grand Rapids. “Today’s youth. Tomorrow’s storytellers” characterizes the vision of this high school/college film and interactive media experience.
Aisha “Pinky” Cole is an American restaurateur. She is the owner and operator of a plant-based burger restaurant chain in Atlanta, Georgia that has grown to 13 other locations. “Bringing vegan options and food awareness to Atlanta’s West End has always been a life dream,” she says.
Arick said: “I admire Pinky taking actions on an ideas that open doors for people.”
Cole and fellow alumna Stacy Lee paid the tuition of 30 Clark Atlanta University seniors in September 2019. In May 2022, Cole gifted an LLC to every graduating student at the Clark Atlanta University commencement ceremony. Cole runs her own philanthropic organization, The Pinky Cole Foundation, which focuses on providing financial support and educational programs for children of color.
Pinky is on a campaign to support the health and generational wealth of the community by encouraging Black males under a particular income threshold to get life insurance, among other initiatives.
