Thanksgiving Coffee Company

I understand the perspective of advocating an across the board boycott to induce economic hardship in a country that depends on money from exports as a means to send a strong “message” about this homophobic and hateful legislation. But not all trade in Uganda can be considered on the same plane. The economic reality in Uganda today is deeply rooted in a history of exploitative trade by multinational corporations. Fair Trade seeks to help support producers to overcome that history and in so doing, encourages community led development initiatives that promote education, health care, and access to better infrastructure. This type of bottom up growth and development positions communities to better respond to the kind of legislation we are seeing in Uganda today. Meanwhile, it should not go without mentioning that much of the support of this bill has been driven by organizations in the United States. It is not the Fair Trade farmers in Peace Kawomera that are the voices on this issue.

Our stance with respect to your suggestion of boycotting this coffee and cutting off this community that we have worked so closely with for five years is that we don’t believe that is the best way to combat the current anti-gay bill being discussed. In fact, we would even more emphatically support the critical work, message, and example that the Peace Kawomera Cooperative is setting. Each day these farmers choose tolerance as their way forward. The children of farmers are seeing that peace is a solution and a path to a brighter future. Supporting this Cooperative promotes the growth of a strong base of citizenship that can see beyond differences (whether that be based in cultural, ethnic, racial, gender or sexual preference diversity) and is successfully collaborating for real economic development.

Please consider the implications of what “direct action” in this case looks like. Going after a group laying the foundation for a more tolerant Uganda won’t solve the problem on the table. However, we encourage everyone to speak out against this proposed bill.

You can sign a petition here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5712/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1309

2009 was a busy year for the Mirembe Project and 2010 is shaping up to be even busier. A feature in Smithsonian Folkways Magazine, new computers for the PK Cooperative management, and a showcase of Mirembe Kawomera “Delicious Peace” coffee at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City has gotten this year off to a rolling start. This project continues to grow, build, and change and you are an integral part of it. Thank you for your continued support.

PKC Gets New Computers

In December, I sent an appeal to some of our supporters asking that they consider donating money to the Cooperative to support the purchase of new computers for PKC’s growing staff. This was a unique request from Thanksgiving Coffee. Ordinarily, we don’t have channels to manage supporters’ charitable donations. However, in this case there was a very specific need from the Cooperative and we were able to coordinate a community leader to spearhead this effort. Many thanks to Debbie in San Jose for being the central point of organization and for the final effort to make sure the money made it to Atlanta in time to be carried to Uganda. Six communities came together to support this fundraising effort. We were successful in raising $885, enough to purchase two new desktop systems for the Coop’s seven person staff!

On January 31st, a friend to Thanksgiving Coffee Company as well as the PK Coop, carried $455 to Uganda and later this week $430 more will be wired from Evanston, IL.

We are so grateful to the folks that came forward to support this effort: the Jewish Reconstructionist Community of Evanston, the Unitarian Universalists Congregation in Santa Rosa, Congregation Hakafa in Winnetka, the Center for Spiritual Living in San Jose, Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and a few individuals.

On behalf of the folks at the Cooperative, many many many thanks! These new computers will aid in significant improvements in operations and organization.

Mirembe Kawomera “Delicious Peace” featured at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is an annual event in Nevada City. Over the course of three days, hundreds of environmentally focused films are shown - from features like Food, Inc. to smaller independent work such as Tapped (a compelling film highlighting issues with the plastic water bottle industry and water rights). Thanksgiving Coffee Company was approached to be a sponsor and we realized this festival was a great fit and a great location to promote Mirembe Kawomera “Delicious Peace” coffee as well as the trailer for the upcoming documentary “Delicious Peace Grows in a Uganda Coffee Bean” by independent film makers Ellen Friedland and Curt Fissel.

Mirembe Kawomera Delicious Peace coffee was served all weekend at five concession venues around town and the trailer was shown three times with Jenais and Ben available to speak briefly at two of the showings. The audience was enthusiastic about the coffee, the project, and the trailer.

Learn more about the festival and view the four minute trailer that was edited specifically for Wild & Scenic 2010.

The Music of PKC Highlighted in Smithsonian Folkways Magazine

For the last few years, our friend, Rabbi Jeffrey Summit from Tufts University, has made three trips to visit the farmers at the Peace Kawomera Cooperative. One primary focus has been field recording the music of PKC’s coffee farmers. Rabbi Summit recently wrote a piece for Smithsonian Folkways Magazine about his work. It’s a great article about music as a means to communicate information, some of the challenges of trying to record in the field, as well as the tremendous labor required by the farmers. Below is an excerpt from his piece but please take a look at the full article:

“There is only one way for an excellent cup of Mirembe Kawomera coffee to get to my kitchen in Massachusetts, and it starts with a farmer in eastern Uganda walking into the field, looking carefully at a coffee tree, and picking the scattered coffee cherries that have ripened. Time is of the essence: cherries must be picked within a three–to–four–day window of ripeness. After picking, the cherries are sorted, washed, hand–pulped, dried, picked over, and bagged to be taken to the cooperative office. My fieldwork has made me acutely aware of this web of connection between us and coffee farmers in Uganda…”
- “Mirembe Kawomera (Delicious Peace) Coffee, Music and Interfaith Harmony in Uganda” Jeffrey Summit, Smithsonian Folkways Magazine, Winter 2010

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Construction is two-thirds complete. Below the ground floor sits a strong foundation firmly grounded in the fertile red earth. Above it, a cool storeroom for bulking coffee. Another storeroom one floor above will alternately double as a utility space, a vanilla, cardamom, and fruit processing facility. Above that pilings reach to the sky, awaiting the final construction push: offices, a meeting hall, and a roof to protect from the equatorial sun and rain…

As you can see from the photos, I’m speaking of the Peace Kawomera Cooperative’s new headquarters—their first office, warehouse, and operations center. Of course, this new construction is also a metaphor for the tremendous growth of the past 5 years and the inspiring hope for the future. Now, after literally dreaming it into being, working with hearts and hands, and thanks to our effort at Thanksgiving Coffee and our customers committed support, this young cooperative has moved into place as one of Uganda’s finest coffee producers, highest price earners, and most innovative social entrepreneurs.

I visited for three short days, but shared many beautiful moments…

…Truckloads of fresh picked coffee brought to the cooperative by farmers who have been carefully trained in the highest quality procedures, happy with the knowledge that they would receive the highest price on the entire Mt. Elgon, home to over 100,000 coffee farmers.

…Attending an exciting meeting of one of Peace Kawomera’s 25 new farmer groups, well attended and representing more women than men in a localized grouping for future farmer training programs, coffee collection, and our upcoming reforestation initiative.

…Sharing a good laugh with my old friends Elias Hasalube and Nakidoto Alisati in front of the shop outside their homes.

…The Peace Kawomera central washing station up and running, carefully selecting only the best ripe coffee cherries. Double sorting the cherries, then depulping, cleaning, and washing the cherries before preparing them for drying and carefully constructed drying tables. Fully integrating the best practices from the world’s most advanced coffee washing stations with a careful eye to efficient and economical operation, treating the sugar contaminated water before allowing it to return to the water table, and hand sorting dried coffee, this new washing station simultaneously hits the three interconnected goals of improving quality, decreasing production costs, and reducing environmental damage.

…Trading happy smiles with happy kids and their parents, proud members of Peace Kawomera.

…Cupping the (really really good) new crop Peace Kawomera with Lydia Nabalubi and her new protégé Christian, two powerful and committed young Ugandan women who are leading the charge towards quality improvement forward.

Now as I write this from the airport in Entebbe, ready to board my short connection to Kigali and looking forward to visiting our partners at the Dukunde Kawa Cooperative, I’m thinking about the friends I’m leaving behind, the work we’ve done, this strong, inspiring, and growing cooperative, and the hope and strength we have for the future.

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