Monday, November 23, 2009
Coffee Kids is proud to announce that we have met the 20 rigorous Standards for Charity Accountability as outlined by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. The alliance is a merger of the National Charities Information Bureau and the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Foundation and its Philanthropic Advisory Service. The standards require organizations like Coffee Kids to follow best practice methodologies in fiscal, program, and personnel policies. For more information about the Standards for Charity Accountability and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, go to www.bbb.org.
Posted by Joey Apodaca on 11/23 at 02:08 PM
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Coffee Kids’ Board Member, Bill Mares, recently traveled to Nicaragua to speak at a “Let’s Talk Coffee” event hosted by Sustainable Harvest.
In October, 2009, I was invited to speak [flattered to be, really] at the Let’s Talk Coffee Conference sponsored by Sustainable Harvest in Montelimar, Nicaragua, where I gave a progress report on a four-year beekeeeping project ( reported in this blog, “Beekeeping Board Member Visits Oaxaca”)
“Let’s Talk Coffee” brings together coffee supply chain partners to discuss sustainability in the supply chain, communicate stakeholder needs, and calibrate quality expectations. It’s a forum where more than 300 farmers, cooperative leaders, roasters, industry visionaries, market analysts, and business experts from 13 countries can receive industry-specific training, listen to expert presentations designed to help improve supply chain quality, and share best practices among peers.
Our beekeeping project, created with Professor Dewey Caron of Oregon State University, is to write a best practices manual for beekeeping for coffee cooperatives who are already producing honey or considering it. All of our information comes from working with cooperatives in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Mexico, and El Salvador.
The benefits of beekeeping to coffee farmers include:
- Income from honey (and related bee products) to supplement coffee earnings, which of course are variable due to a volatile world market.
- Bee pollination of coffee plants can improve the quality and quantity of coffee.
- Honey production adds to rural employment and helps reduce rural to urban migration.
Key to our project has been work with Coffee Kids partner, CAMPO, in Oaxaca, Mexico where our friend Alfredo Contreras has demonstrated extraordinary teaching ability. In fact, Contreras and CAMPO Director Cesar Morales helped to establish a beekeeping project with Coffee Kids partner CECOCAFEN in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.
Our presentation at “Let’s Talk Coffee,” was well-received and I was happy to provide my perspective to all present.
Posted by site admin on 11/23 at 10:08 AM
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
Boston Stoker has been a Coffee Kids supporter since 1991 after Don Dean, who founded the company with his wife Sally, saw a Coffee Kids presentation at a Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) conference.
“We were charter members of the SCAA and our founder was an economist. What attracted him to Coffee Kids was that it made economic sense, it’s a great way to address a tough problem,” said Henry Dean, vice president of operations.
Boston Stoker began in 1973 as a pipe tobacco and cigar store. They began offering specialty coffee the following year to entice customers to stay longer and the beverage eventually supplanted their tobacco business. The company now includes ten coffee shops and a wholesale roasting plant in the Dayton, Ohio area.
“We are able to support Coffee Kids through generous donations from our retail customers. All of our locations have Coffee Kids coin drops instead of tip jars.”
Employees at the company are informed about Coffee Kids work and they share this information with customers. Some employees donate a portion of their check per week. And it adds up. Boston Stoker has donated more than $50,000 since 2005.
“We constantly receive feedback from both customers and our baristas. They’re very proud to be helping the families that bring them great coffee,” Dean said.
Posted by site admin on 11/19 at 10:12 AM
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
In mid-October, I visited our partner ICSUR in Chiapas, Mexico. Men and women there are learning to raise chickens and edible mushrooms and to utilize traditional medicine for common illnesses. Their edible mushroom project, which was financed by Coffee Kids in the past, became completely self-sustaining last year. It was great to see how that project has grown and how families have moved onto new projects to diversify income and provide for better health care and food security.
For seven years, ICSUR has collaborated on a number of projects with indigenous communities in the Zoque region. The technical staff at ICSUR does an impressive job of maintaining excitement for the projects while respecting the preferences and priorities of the communities.
They have helped them solicit government funding for local infrastructure and technical staff who support and advise on the cultivation of coffee in the region. Their coffee is sold under the name Cooperativa Federación Selva Negra. Some of ICSUR’s most important work in this area has been helping families create alternatives to coffee and bolster economic independence.
Given the global economic crisis, this year has been especially difficult for Selva Negra. The government has stopped offering financial support for technical staff and the fees associated with coffee certification. Besides this, coffee buyers have had to cancel two large coffee contracts and coffee was sold for national consumption instead of for export. Many families suffered a heavy loss.
In moments like these, many families not only suffer a loss of income, but also lose motivation to continue farming coffee. The economic woes have convinced many families of the importance of economic diversification and more and more of them are taking advantage of Coffee Kids-supported projects in chicken-raising and traditional medicines.
ICSUR is working with the families to reach their goals so that they can continue farming coffee without being completely dependent on it.
Read more about ICSUR’s efforts and see photos on our Flickr page.
Posted by Jose Luis Zarate on 11/18 at 10:33 AM
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