Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Featured Donor: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

For more than 20 years, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR), of Waterbury, VT, has made support of Coffee Kids a cornerstone in their efforts to build a socially responsible company. GMCR is our largest donor with over $1 million in contributions since Coffee Kids began.

GMCR strives to “create the ultimate coffee experience in every life we touch from tree to cup – transforming the way the world understands business.” Their commitment to building sustainable relationships with coffee-growing communities is often cited as vital to their incredible success.

The company understands the complexities of the coffee world and supports a variety of initiatives, including: Fair Trade, shade-grown and organic certified coffees, direct-trade relationships, and support for nonprofit organizations working in coffee-growing communities. Through these efforts, GMCR works to reduce poverty, alleviate hunger, and improve quality of life at origin.

Many GMCR employees have traveled with Coffee Kids on origin trips to learn about conditions in coffee-farming communities. Moved by such experiences, these employees and others donate generously through the company’s employee payroll deduction program.

The company also recently announced a $500,000 commitment – in addition to their annual contributions – to Coffee Kids for education projects in Nicaragua. The money will be distributed over four years and fund two scholarship projects for the children of coffee farmers. Read more about GMCR’s contribution here (PDF; 196 KB).
GMCR highlights their support of Coffee Kids on their website sharing information about their support and how it impacts coffee-farming families with their customers

Thanks to everyone at GMCR for their unwavering support and dedication to coffee-farming families.

Coffee Kids Benefit Drawing - Three Great Prizes

We are excited to announce the second annual benefit drawing for Coffee Kids with three great prizes from Coffee Kids supporters. The drawing will be held on Sunday, April 18 at 1 pm at the Coffee Kids’ booth (#2157) at the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) Expo in Anaheim, CA.

Tickets for the drawing are available for a suggested donation of $25 (five entries for a donation of $100) and participants need not be present to win. Please visit Coffee Kids Donate page and enter SCAA in the ‘memorial/gift’ field. You can also donate over the phone by calling 505-820-1443. Prizes will be shipped free of charge to winners by Behmor, Inc., Visions Espresso and The Little Bean Coffee Company.

Update, 4/16/2010: Today is the last day to enter the drawing online. Please make your donation by 5pm PST! If you’re at the SCAA, stop by our booth and enter the drawing on up until noon, Sunday, April 19.

The prizes include:

• 1st prize – A Mypressi Handheld Espresso Machine (value $169) and free coffee (value $25) donated by Vision Espresso Services of Seattle, WA; and a Behmor 1600 1lb Coffee Roaster (value $299) donated by Behmor, Inc., of Incline Village, NV;


• 2nd prize – A Behmor 1600 1lb Coffee Roaster (value $299) donated by Behmor, Inc., of Incline Village, NV;


• 3rd prize – A fully-packed coffee gift basket with fresh roasted fair trade organic coffees, whole leaf teas and other items (value $175) from The Little Bean Coffee Company of Huntington Beach, CA.
  

All proceeds from the drawing will benefit Coffee Kids’ efforts to help coffee-farming families improve their quality of life.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Microcredit and Food Sovereignty in Veracruz

At the end of January, I visited Self-Managed Development (AUGE) in Veracruz, Mexico. Over the past 14 years, the Coffee Kids/AUGE partnership has promoted personal entrepreneurship through a microcredit and savings project called Groups of Women Saving in Solidarity (GMAS). Check out photos from my trip at our Flickr page.

My first stop on the trip was in Teocelo, where AUGE’s headquarters are located. I stayed at the educational center that AUGE built with Coffee Kids’ support in 2005. It’s a great place to visit because there are a lot of young people coming and going. They participate in many projects, from radio broadcasting, to food sovereignty courses, to leadership training. Families also come to visit the traditional doctor who has an office here.

The main goal of my visit was to work with AUGE on a strategic plan to help maximize the effective use of resources for the following years. AUGE has extensive experience in grassroots projects that help hundreds of families and their spirit of solidarity motivates them to make decisions that best serve the region.

For an entire day, I met with representatives from the different departments and groups that make up AUGE to identify key areas where funding could be directed in the short and medium term to help them become more effective.

At the end of the day, AUGE’s director Norma Alcántara mentioned, “It was a long day, but I know that the time we are taking now to plan things is going to be worth it in the long-term. The time that we use to plan is going to help us avoid many problems in the future”.

The next day we visited to the municipality of Ixhuacán de los Reyes and the town of Ixhuatlán del Café to meet with women participating in the GMAS project.

The women I met told me that life in coffee regions is difficult because they are dependent on the coffee harvest and it’s not enough. But many of them pointed out that they have fewer worries thanks to the savings and the possibility of borrowing money in time of need. In a region where banks charge extremely high interest rates, savings groups are a great help for these families.

“I have participated in microcredit and saving groups with AUGE for four years. I use my savings to help my two sons who are attending high school,” said Yolanda Vázquez Colorado, a 54-year old mother from the village of Cetlalpa.

The way the women use their savings and loans varies from town to town. Many use it to create or improve small businesses, but some borrow money to pay for hospital visits or funeral costs. Without the support from the saving groups these women could rarely afford to pay such expenses. In times of need, access to money at a fair interest rate is a great help.

In the past two years, AUGE has also developed a comprehensive food sovereignty project. Food sovereignty differs greatly from food security, the more common term used in development circles.

Whereas food security is concerned with ensuring access to food to all people, food sovereignty takes it one step further and considers where the food originates. By promoting local systems of production and healthy choices, communities can become more independent and less reliant on international aid or cheap imported goods.

In this project, AUGE provides training in nutrition, herbal medicines, and organic family gardens, and promotes local, natural foods instead of nutrient-deficient processed foods. Using a combination of radio broadcasts and workshops, AUGE reaches thousands in the state of Veracruz. Many of the women in GMAS groups also have joined the food sovereignty project.

“I am already part of a savings group and it has helped me a lot, but I really like the food sovereignty project because I learn to grow my own food and now I know where my food comes from,” Vázquez said. “Many women in my group want to do this project because it is healthier for our families and we can save money by producing our own food.”

In a region where coffee often seems to be the only option for income, women and their families here are finding avenues to improve their quality of life based on trust and solidarity.

Check out photos from my trip at our Flickr page. And learn more about AUGE’s work here.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Coffee Kids Adds Board Members

Coffee Kids is proud to announce new officers to the Board of Directors and the addition of members Guy Burdett and Ellen Bradbury Reid.

New board officers include Burdett as board president; Elizabeth Whitlow of California Certified Organic Farmers, vice president; Rob Stephen of Coffee Solutions, secretary; and Mona Blaber, a Santa Fe-based freelance editor and writer, treasurer.

Board President Guy Burdett is president and CEO of InterAmerican Coffee, a Houston-based coffee importer. He brings more than two decades of experience in the coffee trade and has traveled to farms and mills throughout Latin America and Africa. He served on the Board of Directors at the Specialty Coffee Association of America from 1994-1996 and headed the SCAA’s Technical Standards Committee.

For more information on the Coffee Kids Board of Directors, please visit our Board page.

Friday, February 12, 2010

And Another Fair Trade Article

Another article appeared on Fair Trade coffee and whether it really helps coffee farmers. The article, “Does Fair Trade Coffee Lift Growers Out of Poverty or Simply Ease Our Guilty Conscience?,” showed up on Alternet.org.

It treads familiar ground about the limits of Fair Trade and looks into the issues surrounding the price farmers receive, whether it really reaches them, and if it is all just more about marketing than actually making a concrete difference of the lives of coffee farmers. The article provides good information on how the price breaks down and makes good points about how it all isn’t quite so simple as a monetary transaction between a roaster and a farmer. But is Fair Trade effective?

The fact of the matter is that purchasing Fair Trade helps. Purchasing organic certified helps too. Purchasing Shade-Grown coffee makes a difference. No matter what, paying farmers a higher, more stable price for their coffee will always help. But in many coffee communities, price is just one part of a complex picture.

In most communities, families have been dependent on coffee for generations. They depend on coffee, not because it’s necessarily a dream job, but because they lack the mobility and resources to explore alternatives.

It’s a given that farmers and their families and employees should be receiving a fair price for their product and labor. But equal emphasis needs to be placed on promoting independent development in coffee communities. Working with them to create educational opportunities, improved health care and economic diversification efforts that will spur vibrant communities with greater sovereignty.

Paying a more equitable price is great, but it’s just not enough. Supporting efforts, like those of Coffee Kids’ partners, extends the reach of Fair Trade and makes a true difference. Learn more about our program partners here. And if you would like to support development in coffee-farming communities, please contribute.