This mother and daughter duo lit up the classroom with their in depth questions, thirst for knowledge, and their talented artistry. Mom did a design on the Florida fibershed for her project, and then they both did a design on a beautiful community center in Miami for their class project.

"The Black Coffee CoOp" was birthed Fall 2018 as the brain child of the mother-daughter team of Constance E. Lee and Constance M. Lee. They sell imported organic coffee, blended specialty teas and vegan bake goods. Many of the tea blends have medicinal properties. The Black Coffee Co-op provide services to special events and local Central Florida food markets. Constance Michelle, (daughter) is the tea mix-master and handles marketing, community relations, inventory & event planning. Constance Elaine (Mother) oversees the finances, event barrister, and event set-up hardware and supplies.

Although a start-up business, the immediate plan is to become a "cooperative business". A cooperative is a business that is; owned by its members; democratically controlled by members; and operated for the benefit of members. This parallels the permaculture design ethics of people care and community. Cooperatives are guided by values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. The overall goal is to meet the shared needs of a group of people, in other words caring for others.

The Black Coffee Co-op believe in fair trade efforts, sustainable and regenerative environmental practices. All of the coffee and teas or organically grown and carefully chosen based on these principles. Also, they firmly believe in supporting the local economy in the community, by participating in neighborhood fund raisers and community events. Thus far, Black Coffee is steadily growing and upon customer request, has expanded the product line to include; tea pots, tea balls, and tea spoon accessories.

Besides marketing organic coffee and tea, this dynamic duo is a creative force in the performing arts. Both mother and daughter are professional costume designers. They have worked on major films, network television series, commercials, theater and corporate productions. Recently, their repertoire have included Oprahs, OWN Network, Disney World, The Orlando Ballet and the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center. Constance, the daughter particularly enjoy making plaster character masks and is skillful in dramatic facial make-up.

They both enjoy weaving, spinning, quilting and other fiber art projects. Presently, they have two art installations at Three-Mask Art Gallery in Orlando, and have a few award winning art shows to their credit.

And it goes without saying, their PDC in permaculture design principles was a natural fit for this vegetarian mother and vegan daughter. Constance Michelle is an herbalist studying the medicinal properties of plants and have completed her certificate in herbal medicines.