WEB-ONLY FEATURE: Positive Production

Since its inception in 1988, nonprofit organization Coffee Kids has been devoted to improving the quality of life in Latin American coffee-producing countries. The company is furthering these efforts with the recent announcement that it’s funding 25 projects in five countries: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. Many of the projects share a theme of helping to provide food for families there. “Food security—putting food on the table year-round—seems to be the biggest crisis right now,” says Carolyn Fairman, Coffee Kids’ executive director.

To achieve its goals, Coffee Kids grants money to partner organizations at origin. One of its new partners is Peru’s APROVAT (Association of Organic Producers of the Tabaconas Valley), an organization of 160 coffee producers, and the groups’ joint effort relates directly to food security. Tabaconas Valley’s remote location means its residents have limited access to quality food and locally produced goods. APROVAT is working with a group of 24 women to open and run a grocery store there. “It will be a grocery store that will focus on local products,” says José Carlos León Vargas, Coffee Kids’ Oaxaca, Mexico-based international program coordinator. “Many grocery stores there only have junk food. The people don’t really have a platform to sell their vegetables or what they produce locally.” Half of the store’s net profits will go toward both expanding the store and creating similar stores in nearby villages.

Another Coffee Kids partner is Veracruz, Mexico-based AUGE (Self-Managed Development). The two have partnered since 1995 to promote entrepreneurship through a savings and microcredit project titled Groups of Women Saving in Solidarity (GMAS). The organizations are now focusing on the Food Sovereignty Project, which will complement GMAS by providing low-interest loans for the production of locally grown food. The project will address the cultivation of heirloom varieties, the building of small vegetable gardens and the use of medicinal plants. “They want to produce food that is going to strengthen the culture of the region,” says León Vargas.

In conjunction with the project is a radio show, titled “Coffee Dreams,” that the organizations are supporting. “It’s produced in order to talk to the community about locally produced food and how important it is to be educated,” says José Luis Zárate, international program director of Coffee Kids, who is also based in Oaxaca. “It’s mostly young people. They talk about subjects like literacy, human rights, women’s rights and domestic violence.” León Vargas adds that the radio station’s reach has done wonders to get the word out about the project. “This radio station has really made a difference in terms of outreach,” he says. “They are actually reaching an audience of 250,000 people. There will be a direct benefit of people listening to the broadcast talking about food sovereignty and what is being done there. That’s the power of radio. It reaches communities and villages.”

In Guatemala, Coffee Kids is working with ADESPA (Association for Sustainable Development of Paraxaj) in Aldea Paraxaj. The two groups joined forces in 2006, and one of their projects was building a quality-focused bakery. “There was the need in the community for fresh bread,” says León Vargas. “People taking part in the project were trained by a local bread maker, and they learned how to make good bread. They have a good reputation in the town, and they deliver bread to other villages with a motorbike. Thanks to that success, they are able to make some money.” And with the money made from the bakery, the organization is able to support various community projects—the current goal is building a nursery and kindergarten to support working parents and childhood development. ADESPA also supports an adult literacy program and the Handicrafts Project, which teaches participants how to embroider and make shoes, and then how to market those products. Zárate says the key is listening to the community and then helping them achieve their wishes. “Our role is just supporting them—getting them closer and bringing all the financial support and training that they need,” he says.

Other projects instituted by Coffee Kids partners address education and scholarships, as well as health awareness and domestic violence prevention. For a complete list of Coffee Kids partners and programs, visit
coffeekids.org/aboutus/programs.

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