It’s been about a week since I returned from my 17 day tour of Guatemala and El Salvador. While it was an amazing trip, coming home was wonderful too. As I’ve settled back into my day to day work, I’ve had some time to reflect on what I saw and what I learned during my travels. 
 
Socially Responsible Coffee 
Our company was founded on the idea that a business has a social obligation to support the community that allows us to be successful. For many years, our focus was on supporting our local community – which is absolutely the right thing to do. However, there is a global community of coffee growers, with whom we wouldn’t have a product to sell. With this in mind, we looked at the great work by organizations like TransFair USA, Rainforest Alliance, Catholic Relief Services and others. We also realized the limitations of these certifications and made the decision to develop our own certification that recognized the positive actions of all coffee growers regardless of their business model or company ownership structure. We certify growers that meet social, environmental and economic criteria and promote their coffee as Socially Responsible in our stores and to our wholesale customers. 
 
On this trip, what I saw once again reinforced in my mind the importance of this program. I saw many farms run by owners with genuine concern for the well being of the people who worked for them and for the environment. I met a man who took the water that he used to run his coffee mill and reuse it to run a hydroelectric wheel that produced enough power to run his entire farm and the houses of his workers. I met another farmer who said to me, “without quality of life for our workers, we cannot have quality coffee.” I also visited a farm where workers were not given the proper tools to work with, making their jobs much more difficult than need be. I walked on trails through the farm that were not maintained properly, making it treacherous for pickers to come down the mountain with their day’s harvest. While some of these experiences are definitely more enjoyable than others, they all speak to the reason why we are striving to buy Socially Responsible Coffee. The coffee growing business is a difficult one and we owe it to the people working on this side of the equation to meet them and to tell their story back at home. It is our responsibility to ensure that they receive a fair price for their product and that we support their efforts to protect the environment which will allow them to continue producing for many years to come. 
 
Pride 
On this trip I was struck by the pride displayed by many of the growers that I met. Many of the owners were very excited to share their farms and their homes with me and my fellow travelers. They were able to tell us about all of the details of the farm from how old a certain tree was to which area of the farm was to be replanted and when. One of the farmers took time to show me his photo album of all of the visitors that he’s hosted over the years. He could tell me all of their names and when they visited. He was also very excited to show us a clipping from a local newspaper featuring a story about his farm. 
 
Coffee farming is a difficult life and one often passed down through many generations of families. The farmers who take pride in their product are the farmers producing the best coffee – and they are often the farmers taking the best care of their workers. Their stories are amazing and need to be shared here at home. Without maintaining strong direct relationships, we cannot properly share their stories. 
 
I’m relatively new to the world of origin travel. Over the last two years, I’ve spent about 20 days at origin and I’m looking forward to many more days in the years to come. My experiences, while limited, have been very powerful and I am very grateful for them. I’ve come home with a renewed responsibility to continue pushing closer to our goal of purchasing 100% Socially Responsible Coffee. I will do my best to find amazing coffees, produced by amazing people and to share those stories with our customers. 
 
I feel very fortunate to work in this industry – it’s a lot of fun, and I get to enjoy amazing coffee. As you sit down with your morning cup, think about all of the people that it took to get that coffee to you – and remember to sip slowly. 
 
-Steve