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Home / Cafe Culture / CoffeeKids.orgby Lura Lee This site review was from August 2000. Name: Coffee Kids Did you know that the average coffee tree only produces one pound of finished coffee per year? With all the coffee beans that we consume, we should be conscious of the lives of the farmers that produce this pleasure-giving crop. Unfortunately, their lives are not anywhere near the western standard to which we've grown accustomed. While the average pound of gourmet coffee costs the American consumer around eight to twelve dollars a pound, the coffee farmers may receive as little as one penny to 25 cents per pound. One organization, in particular, is working to help rural coffee farmers raise their standard of living. CoffeeKids.org was founded by Bill Fishbein in 1989, after a visit to Guatemala. He realized that, although the coffee farmers lived in impoverished, even squalid conditions, they were people with integrity. CoffeeKids.org wants to turn our cravings into a positive force in the lives of the coffee growers and workers in the tropical areas where coffee is grown. Coffee Kids is an organization dedicated to improving "the quality of life for children and families who live in coffee growing communities around the world."
Is there a need?Yes. Simply and bluntly put, years of imperialism have weakened the agriculturally based economies in coffee growing areas. The infant mortality rate in the coffee growing regions is much too high and the educational level of the children is much too low. Three Successful StrategiesCoffee Kids identifies sustainable, community led programs. They discuss several successful strategies on their website. The most common is the microcredit solution. Coffee Kids provides seed money to start a community bank, founded on a sustainable credit model. In Oaxaca, Mexico, Coffee Kids was instrumental in setting up a microcredit system led by the women of the community. Thus, the women have set up small businesses that bring a level of economic stability to the community that is not based upon the volatile coffee markets. Another successful strategy initiated by CoffeeKids.org brings solar dryers to coffee communities. Immediately after harvest, coffee cherries must be processed. Many rural farmers have to sell their coffee cherries to opportunistic middlemen, called "coyotes," for very little profit. By having a solar dryer, the farmers remain in control of the more lucrative raw coffee beans. The environment also profits from the use of solar dryers. The solar dryers replace drum dryers that are run on petroleum or wood chopped from the local forests. Furthermore, the coffee beans get better treatment with the solar dryers. Instead of being tossed around in huge drums or left to "dry" for over two weeks on moldy patios (patio drying), the solar dryer accomplishes the drying process in as little as 24 hours. Coffee Kids also works to holistically improve the lives of community members. Coffee Kids. works to bolster existing educational programs, begin health care education collectives, and set up sustainable local sanitation systems. All of these programs follow the simple maxim: "give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime," and all work from the principle that these coffee farmers are full of ingenuity and intelligence. A New Perspective on Coffee CultivationCoffeeKids.org has a straightforward and highly navigable layout, and the site puts a considerable amount of information about the organization at the visitor’s fingertips. Particularly illuminating is the site’s Community Solutions section. From this section there are links to detailed descriptions of successful educational and health care ventures in which Coffee Kids has played a vital role. Another link provides information about the microcredit procedure and the ways it benefits the communities it serves. In addition to the wealth of organization-specific information, CoffeeKids.org has interesting facts and images concerning the growth and harvest of coffee. A brief but illuminating Coffee Facts page provides a link to several pictures of various stages in the cultivation, harvest, and early-stage transport of coffee beans. A caption beside these pictures says, "Coffee Kids’ work is grounded in a respect for this labor and for the values, cultures, and rights of the people who grow coffee." Likewise, visitors to CoffeeKids.org are certain to gain a new perspective on the people and the process that brought their coffee from the tree to their mug. Coffee Kids' motto is: "Grounds For Hope." Truly an inspirational organization with an eye-opening website, INeedCoffee.com is proud to offer CoffeeKids.org the August 2000 Site of the Month award. |
