Sustainability
Building a sustainable business is central to Counter Culture Coffee's mission. We strive to be leaders in sustainable coffee and combine our commitment to buying high-quality coffee with respect for the natural environment.
Since the beginning, we have sought coffee that not only tastes good but also does good—for our local community and for all of the communities around the world where our partners grow coffee—and we continue to raise our standards as we make progress. Whether through our our Counter Culture Direct Trade Certification or our projects aimed at reducing our environmental footprint, our day-to-day decisions reflect our dedication to real environmental, social, and fiscal sustainability.
Our vision is to pursue coffee perfection by creating partnerships that ensure prosperity for all people, improving the natural environment and operating efficiently to minimize our environmental impact.
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Catching Up with our SEEDS Program
12-14-12
What is SEEDS?
SEEDS is an acronym that stands for Sustaining Environmental and Educational Development at Source, and our SEEDS program was created to structure and define Counter Culture's monetary contributions to projects that are not coffee-quality-specific but still benefit our coffee-producing partners and their communities. We allocated our first funds in January of 2011 and have made approximately one contribution per quarter since then. We decided to earmark a penny per pound of coffee we purchase to SEEDS, and, since its inception, we have directed money to agricultural training programs, research projects, and a food security initiative, among other projects. To date, we have contributed a total of $24,963 to projects in 6 countries.
We'd like to catch you up on the projects we have funded over the last couple of years through our SEEDS program with eye toward more regular updates of ongoing projects. Over the next few months, we will be sharing weekly stories about each of the projects.
Our First Project: Youth Trainers
CENFROCAFE Cooperative
San Ignacio, Peru
CENFROCAFE Cooperative
San Ignacio, Peru
CENFROCAFE is a cooperative in Northern Peru that we have worked with since 2006. This relationship brings us our Valle del Santuario and La Frontera coffees.
In 2010, Cenfrocafe selected 50 youth trainers out of 120 candidates. In 2011, when Counter Culture entered the scene, they had retained 45 of trainers, and, in 2012, there were 30, at which point they trained 10 more. At this point, the young trainers are able to visit the co-op members almost year-round. They hold workshops on topics such as fertilizers, pest control, and documentation of inputs at the farm level. They are each assigned a zone to focus on and have reached more than half of CENFROCAFE's membership – more than 1,500 members.
During our recent with the co-op, Aleneor, a youth trainer in his third year, was incredibly enthusiastic and eager to answer questions about the program. He seemed to truly enjoy the range of his training and subsequent responsibilities that included everything from learning how the business side of the co-op functions to pricing to agricultural practices. Aleneor spoke eloquently about how his relationships with producers changed over time and the importance of strategies to build their trust. And, he was eager to tell how suggestions made by trainers truly pay off in the long run.
Among the challenges for youth trainers is the desire to visit co-op members multiple times throughout the year with more targeted topics. At this point, the trainers and their leadership are trying to assess the different topics that are most appropriate. Retention is hard, as well, as some participants leave to study or seek higher pay. However, Cenfrocafe continues to support the importance of youth involvement and clearly sees a bright future for them within the cooperative.
Counter Culture was pleased to be a small part of this worthwhile initiative that clearly earns its own dividends in terms of impact both on producers and at the co-op level.
Saludos,
Hannah
Hannah
