Friday, March 07, 2008

Fishbein Declares Confidence, Resigns from Board Role at Coffee Kids

(Santa Fe, N.M.) – Bill Fishbein, founder of Coffee Kids, has resigned from the board of directors. Declaring his confidence in the organization Fishbein has decided to offer his expertise to other non-profits and businesses looking to maximize the impact of their Corporate Social Responsibility dollars and pursue other opportunities to help coffee-farming families. Fishbein continues to be an ardent supporter of Coffee Kids and will continue to advocate for the organization and serve on the board of Coffee Kids UK charity.

Coffee Kids’ non-commercial approach to development has helped tens of thousands of coffee-farming families. But millions more are in dire need. “It became obvious to me that Coffee Kids was going to have to be around for a long time,” said Fishbein. “To do so, it had to become free from its dependency on me. The organization has been transitioning toward this day for several years, since Carolyn Fairman took over responsibility for day-to-day activities as executive director.”

“Coffee Kids is no longer dependent upon me,” added Fishbein.“The staff is led by an executive director whose heart and sensibilities are deeply rooted in programs. With a well-seasoned president and depth in grassroots program development, organizational development, finance, marketing and fundraising, the board is more capable than any other time in Coffee Kids history. I have no doubt Coffee Kids will follow the mission instead of the money.”

Rob Stephen, President of the Coffee Kids board of directors said, “As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Coffee Kids, we applaud Bill’s vision as the founder of this extraordinary organization. To truly honor his work over the last two decades and demonstrate respect for his decision to step away, we will hold fast to our mission, remain focused on meaningful programs, and continue to build infrastructure that increases our capacity to do good. The best way to say thank you to Bill and all those who have made our first 20 years possible is to ensure we are built to last well into the future.”

Fishbein’s vote of confidence comes as Coffee Kids prepares to formally mark its 20th Anniversary with a Dinner Celebration May 3, 2008 at the Minneapolis Convention Center during the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 2008 Conference & Exhibition. For more information call 505-820-1143 or email .

Monday, February 11, 2008

20th Anniversary Celebration Tickets Available

The year 2008 marks two decades of Coffee Kids helping coffee-farming families create vibrant communities. Celebrate with us at our anniversary dinner on May 3rd at the 2008 SCAA Conference in Minneapolis, Minn.

Throughout the evening we will reflect on the achievements and challenges of the last 20 years, look ahead to the future, and acknowledge those who have stood by us and our partners in the work. Speakers will include Coffee Kids Founder Bill Fishbein, Executive Director Carolyn Fairman, and Board President Rob Stephen, as well as other special guests. Plus, a Putumayo World Music recording artist will be making a very special performance.

20th Anniversary Celebration Dinner
Saturday, May 3, 2008
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Minneapolis Convention Center, Ballroom B
Dinner to include wine, hors d’oevres, entrée and dessert.

Individual: $75
Company table for eight : $560

Reservations are required. Please contact Heather Ferraro at or (505) 820-1443 for reservations.

Revenue in excess of event costs will be directed toward Coffee Kids’ projects in Latin America.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Celebrate 20 Years of Coffee Kids

Hello Friends,
I’ve been working on behalf of coffee-farming families since 1988. By taking the simple step to create Coffee Kids with a few friends, I set in motion a multitude of forces that I had no idea were waiting in the wings. That step led me on a path to my life’s work: giving back to coffee farmers and helping create sustainable communities.

I am excited about Coffee Kids’ 20th year of helping coffee-farming families improve the quality of their lives. To commemorate this milestone, we’ll be holding a celebration dinner on Saturday, May 3, 2008, at the Minneapolis Convention Center during the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Convention.

During the evening we will reflect on achievements and changes over the last 20 years, look ahead to future goals, and acknowledge the people – such as yourself – who have helped along the way.

I invite you to become a Sponsor of this very special event* and join us in celebrating 20 years of vision and hard work on behalf of coffee-farming families. Since some of the sponsorships are available on a first come, first served basis, please download our sponsorship form (PDF; 436 KB) and send it to Ms. Heather Ferraro at Coffee Kids as soon as possible. Thank you.

Please don’t delay in helping us make this our most ambitious year yet in offering hope of a better future to thousands of coffee-farming families.

Best wishes,
Bill Fishbein, Founder

*Any sponsorship revenue in excess of event costs will be directed toward Coffee Kids’ projects in Latin America.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Coffee and Popcorn

We just received a DVD here in the Coffee Kids offices and thought you should check it out as well.

Black Coffee is a three-hour, three part documentary chronicling the history of coffee and the conditions faced by coffee farmers. It gives a great overview of coffee history, the coffee industry and life in coffee-farming communities.

Black Gold is another good documentary to check out. It’s gotten a bit more publicity than “Black Coffee” and gives a good overview of the plight of coffee farmers, primarily those in Ethiopia.

Let us know if you get a chance to check them out and tell us what you think.

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!

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.

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!

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.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Nicaragua Program Trip – September 2007

In September, I visited our partners SOPPEXCCA and CECOCAFEN in Nicaragua. The main goal of the trip was to facilitate an exchange or encuentro between AUGE, a Coffee Kids partner from Veracruz, Mexico, and SOPPEXCCA.

These face-to-face exchanges are an important piece of Coffee Kids’ approach to development by allowing our partners the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and approaches to common problems.

Several months ago, Clara Palma, coordinator of AUGE’s savings and children’s groups, realized that the children in the groups were growing up, which brought up some challenges.

She wondered, what options they could offer these young men and women? Do we just tell them that there is no place for them? Or, do we try to fold them into the adult savings groups?

In Nicaragua, SOPPEXCCA has created two successful programs for children and adolescents in environmental education. As a result, Coffee Kids coordinated a meeting between the two groups to discuss and share approaches to setting up programs for adolescents.

On the second leg of the trip, I visited our partner CECOCAFEN to learn more about the progress of their GMAS (Groups of Women Saving in Solidarity) project and the scholarship program in the region of Nueva Segovia.

This region was one of the first places colonized by the Spanish; it was also an important center for gold production and a constant target of pirates. Ironically, the area is now one the most isolated and rural regions in Nicaragua.

During this trip, I visited the communities of El Ocotal, Jalapa and El Jicaro. Some of the project participants traveled 3 or 4 hours to attend the meetings. The participants shared their feelings and ideas regarding the savings programs and let us know how big a difference it was making in their lives.