Tuesday, January 29, 2008

CoffeeGeek holding Fundraiser for Coffee Kids, Jan. 21-Feb. 22

Mark Prince of CoffeeGeek.com, one of the most thorough chroniclers of the coffee world on the Web, is doing a month-long fundraiser for Coffee Kids, Jan. 21- Feb. 22.

Check out www.coffeegeek.com and visit the Coffee Kids link on the left. CoffeeGeek.com is auctioning off several coffee grinders donated by Baratza; donating 25% of their ad revenue for February; donating their Amazon affiliate revenue until the end of Feb; and matching any direct donations made to Coffee Kids through CoffeeGeek.

Check out www.coffeegeek.com and tell them thanks for their help!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Ethical Beans…

In Search of an Ethical Bean This recent article from News Leader in Staunton, Va., gives a recap of local efforts to ensure fair trade for coffee farmers. It’s a nice article covering the benefits of a variety of price premiums for farmers. But in the seventh paragraph, Melissa Scholl, co-owner of Lexington Coffee Roasting Company and a Coffee Kids member, makes a great point.

“Fair Trade Certified coffee is a wonderful program, but it’s only part of the answer,” she says.

Fair trade and other price premiums are all good approaches, but poverty is complex and the real problem in many of these communities is not so much a low price as the complete dependence on one crop. That’s why Coffee Kids is in no way involved with the commercialization of coffee.

We work exclusively in coffee-farming communities, but we really have nothing to do with coffee. Our approach to helping coffee communities lift themselves out of poverty is to help them develop vibrant local economies that can function independent of coffee. Without complete dependence on one crop, coffee farmers can continue raising coffee without the daily worry of how they will survive.

Coffee Kids isn’t the only answer either, but complex problems are solved with a variety of approaches. Check out our programs and find out how you can help.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Matt Maxin Memorial Auction Benefits Coffee Kids

Koka Coffee Lounge in Cincinatti, Ohio, hosted a silent auction on Dec. 9 in memory of Matt Maxin, a University of Cincinatti graduate who was tragically killed in a car accident in June 2007.
Maxin was the boyfriend of Koka Coffee Lounge employee Mandy Kordal and had worked at a coffee house in his hometown. Coffee Kids was his favorite charity.

Maxin’s friends organized a silent auction of 36 of his photographs as well as other students’ donated artwork to benefit Coffee Kids. The auction raised over $1,200.
Coffee Kids is deeply honored to be the beneficiary of this special event and the Coffee Kids staff extend their sympathy and condolences to Matt’s family and friends.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Food vs. Fuel and the Global Economy

We talked about this issue in a past entry (The Energy Crisis Will Be Solved), but it bears repeating, especially after I read this article in the Christian Science Monitor, The Global Grain Bubble.

An interesting piece that crystallizes the importance of well thought out plans to address the global energy crisis. And once again, check out our partner STIAP who has come up with creative solutions that address their energy problems on a local scale while continuing to meet their food needs.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Stop the Plastic Bag Scourge

“China bans free plastic bags”

According to this article a friend sent me, “the Chinese use up to 3 billion plastic shopping bags a day.” As a result of the number of bags floating through the air and filling their landfills, the government has mandated that shops and supermarkets charge for the ubiquitous bags to encourage the use of reusable bags. I’m not sure how many bags we use per day in the United States or Europe, but I figure it would be a pretty hefty figure.

Before I began putting together my collection of shopping bags, I would collect plastic bags from each shopping trip and leave them on a hook near my door. It was incredible how quickly they piled up. But now I leave five reusable shopping bags hanging by my door and grab them for each shopping trip. It also limits my purchasing because I have to be able to carry what I buy.

Our government may not go as far as banning free plastic bags, but you can do your part to help reduce impact and support Coffee Kids at the same time by picking up one of our tote bags in our online shop.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Socially Conscious and Socially Networking

Given the popularity of various social networking sites, Coffee Kids has recently jumped into the fray. Visit our Myspace page or look us up on Facebook

A Coffee Kids supporter also recently set up a cause page on Facebook for Coffee Kids. If you’re on Facebook, join the cause and help promote Coffee Kids’ efforts among your friends.

We’ll regularly be posting videos, blogs and information on upcoming events. Take a look and drop us a line!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

More Photos From Oaxaca

Here are some more photos from our visit to Oaxaca, Mexico. For even more, check out our Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/coffeekids.

Doña Roberta Martinez harvests coffee in the family plot in Santa Cruz Tepetotutla.

Children in the town of San Antonio Barrio

Children in San Antonio Barrio converse with Coffee Kids Managing Director Mary Bellman and her daughter Lucia.

A community member explains the aquaculture project in Santa Cruz Tepetotutla

Communications Coordinator Kyle Freund with Don Raymundo and Doña Roberta Martinez of Santa Cruz Tepetotutla

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Staff Views: Oaxaca Trip

By Heather Ferraro, Membership Coordinator

As the membership coordinator at Coffee Kids, I work with donors out of our administrative office in Santa Fe. I don’t often have the opportunity to see the projects we support in action, or meet the participants face to face. This was my second visit to Mexico, and my first time visiting remote coffee-growing communities.
In the communities that we visited, we were quick to notice the absence of women in the town meetings. They generally attended only when specifically invited, and they didn’t really serve on committees or participate in discussions.

It was a strange feeling to attend meetings filled with only men, especially since Coffee Kids staff is mostly women, including a female executive director. I wondered what the men thought about all of these women in prominent leadership roles.

I wondered if it makes them think about or question the status of women in their own community, or do they just think that modern American women are a strange anomaly?

It was clear to me that there is work to be done to empower women and create just, equitable gender relations in these communities. Carolyn Fairman explained that in other communities where we work, there have been great strides in promoting gender equity, especially where women’s savings groups have promoted a sense of solidarity and empowerment.

But it’s a delicate balance, respecting current cultural norms while also promoting human rights and civil liberties. Change has to come from within a particular community, and success is more likely when the men participate and support the change.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Staff Trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, Opens Eyes

In early December, Coffee Kids staff visited Oaxaca, Mexico, to learn about some of the programs supported by Coffee Kids partner, CAMPO, and a dry mill run by our partner, FomCafe.

The visit included a tour of CAMPO’s new educational center. Buildings are still under construction, but CAMPO is already using the installations to provide training to coffee farmers from around the state of Oaxaca. Demonstration projects include worm composting and standard composting; organic gardening and greenhouse projects; fish, sheep, rabbit and chicken production; and responsible building techniques (Check out our programs page for more information on CAMPO).

CAMPO’s offices are being constructed using a compacted earth technique, which is similar to adobe with a mix of soil, sand, lime and water optimized for local conditions and compacted into a sturdy wall.

The day after our visit to the center, we traveled two hours down windy roads into the mountains outside of Oaxaca, and then two more hours down a dirt road clinging to the side of said mountains. After four hours of stomach-turning travel, we arrived in Santa Cruz Tepetotutla, a small town clinging to the mountain.

The town is in the middle of a globally important bio-reserve. Jaguars and tepesquintle (similar to a giant spotted rat) maraud the area and lush forests hem the town in. Most families work in coffee and have struggled for years. Thanks to CAMPO’s help many have begun working in other areas to supplement their income and provide a better quality of life for their families and improve their community.

The organic coffee plot of Don Raymundo Osorio was a striking example of biodiversity and responsible management. His tall coffee bushes were ready for harvest and vanilla vines crawled up their stems providing two cash crops on the same shady plot. Raymundo showed us the beginnings of a greenhouse which will provide vegetables year round, part of a project the community is doing with CAMPO’s support.

We returned to the town center to visit with local leaders and learn more about Santa Cruz’s history. The town’s commitment to protecting their forests, water supply and biodiversity has earned them financial incentives from the government for the maintenance of their resources. Their environmental vision and resources also attract a steady stream of students and researchers to the area and they are constructing a research center for these visitors to create additional income for the community.

Community leaders also told us about their struggle to build a road to their community. Until about four years ago, people from Santa Cruz had to walk hours to reach the nearest road. All supplies were packed in. But with a strong effort and support from CAMPO, determined community leaders navigated endless bureaucratic processes to build a road and connect their town with the outside world.

The following day we followed a steep footpath straight down the mountain to arrive at the neighboring community of San Antonio del Barrio, still inaccessible by road. We arrived sweaty and tired in this tiny town in the valley, where we were welcomed by local officials and a marimba band. We met with a group of women who, with CAMPO’s help, have started selling their elaborate, hand-embroidered huipiles (traditional blouses) in Oaxaca City. After the visit, we made the long journey back to Oaxaca City.

The next morning we visited with Coffee Kids partner FomCafé and toured a dry mill, recently purchased by four Oaxacan coffee cooperatives to consolidate and gain control over their production process. We learned about the detailed steps of dry mill processing, but more importantly how the four cooperatives pooled their resources to purchase the mill.

Like so much of what we saw on this trip, it was a reminder of just how enterprising people can be when they are determined to create a better life, and just how much impoverished communities can accomplish with a little bit of help.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Costa Rican Coffee Pickers on the Move

“Centam Coffee – Young Costa Rica coffee pickers tire of hard labor,” reads the headline of this article by Brian Harris that appeared on the Reuters Web site Dec. 13, 2007.

As I read the article I realized a striking similarity to my own experience growing up in rural Wisconsin. I was raised, along with my brothers, on a small dairy farm. Each morning before school we would do chores, each night we would do chores and on the weekend we would do chores. Summers were filled with fun, but lots of work as well, picking rocks, baling hay, the things every farm kid knows.

It was tough but good. We learned life lessons many kids have no idea about. But as we grew up we were encouraged to pursue other interests – not to avoid the hard work on the farm – but to get away from a system that doesn’t adequately reward that type of work. And as other farms began to get bigger, and my brothers and I moved away, and more pressures came down on my parents, there came a time that we had to sell the farm.

The same thing is happening in Costa Rica. Families are realizing they don’t have to accept coffee-growing as their only option. The article seems to take the perspective of how this will affect coffee prices and how the supply will suffer. But there’s more to it than that.

As is often the case, people overlook the human factor. For generations people throughout the coffee-growing world have been reliant on coffee, and now as countries develop, they realize that coffee isn’t the only option.

The youth of Costa Rica aren’t tired of the trade, they are tired of seeing their parents struggle to live; they are tired of working sun-up to sundown for little payoff. If people are leaving coffee, it’s not because it’s “the work of the poor.”

Coffee Kids’ partner FHC has been providing scholarships for the children of coffee-farming families since 1996. A number of the students return after their studies to take roles in the cooperatives as agronomists or accountants, and others return to their communities as teachers.