Thanksgiving Coffee Company

This project has legs. Long legs. I am astonished by the depth of some of the conversations I have had as I get to know Mirembe Kawomera Coffee’s supporters and continue to introduce the coffee to new folks. For old friends and new friends alike the reaction to this inspiring story tends to be the same: just buying coffee doesn’t seem like enough. Most of us are driven to “do more” to have a greater impact more quickly.

 

When Thanksgiving Coffee learned of the Peace Kawomera Cooperative, our reaction was similar. We didn’t just decide to buy all of the coffee sight unseen (and untasted) at above Fair Trade prices. We also engaged in a profit sharing agreement that committed an additional dollar from every package or pound sold to go back to the Cooperative for infrastructure improvements. The goal of our profit sharing agreement was to front-load the cooperative’s finance for development so that they could, in a short number of years, make necessary investments in infrastructure and management to produce a higher quality (and consequently higher priced) coffee.

 

The result was that all of your support gave back $2.61 per package or pound of coffee - $1.61 directly to the farmers’ pockets and $1.00 to the Cooperative. Overtime the Cooperative has grown to include about 1,000 member farmers, thus increasing crop volume in addition to improving farming methods and quality control. 

 

In the spirit of this “greater giving” we get a lot of requests from people that want to make a donation. This generosity is rooted in the recognition of our lives of privilege, particularly when we learn about the members of the Coop who have more limited access to basic necessities and are striving to send their children to school in addition to feeding their families.

 

Thanksgiving Coffee is not a non-profit. Although the spirit of this company is deeply rooted in social justice and sound environmental practices, we do not have the ability to handle charitable giving. The best thing we can do for the farmers and for our company to continue its good work, is sell coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. And we rely on you to support us. People often ask about our profit margins and we answer candidly: They are not big. It is not lucrative to have your heart in the right place all the time. And yet it continues to be worth it to us every time we get to share the inspiring story of Peace Kawomera, every time we cup fresh beans, every time we connect with a new person who champions this in their community of big hearted coffee drinkers and Mirembe Kawomera supporters.

 

Today, July 1, our profit sharing agreement is changing. The Peace Kawomera Cooperative was able to use its leverage to get a USAID infrastructure grant. This is fantastic news! Here at Thanksgiving Coffee we will continue to give back $.25 from every package or pound sold but will now use the remaining $.75 to build a marketing budget for this coffee, something we previously have not been able to afford. This means more resources for us to share the story and more people to have the opportunity to delight in a cup of Delicious Peace.

 

Additionally, this year, the coffee quality improved a significant 3-5 points on Ben’s scoring sheet. In return, the price is increasing from $1.61-$1.85. That translates to an additional $18,000 per year the farmers have earned on the two containers we’ve bought, and hopefully another $9,000 if we can bring in the third. In 2008 we rebated about $30,000, so while the numbers are not exactly equivalent, there is a shift from infrastructure development to additional money in farmers pockets, and a better quality product, which is what sustainability really looks like. This was our goal all along, and our hope is that we can continue to see quality improve with corresponding increases in price along the way.

 

Our ability to sell Mirembe Kawomera coffee sends a strong message to farmers that they have reason to be prideful of their craft and that we support them in their decision to join the Cooperative and share in a better vision of peace and tolerance. We thank you for your role in learning and sharing the story and delighting in the nutty sweetness of Mirembe Kawomera.

 

Jenais

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Tags: price per pound, profit sharing, quality improvements, rebates

This entry was posted by jz on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under Sharing with you.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.