Announcing: Crema.co’s Partnership with Food 4 Farmers

We make no secret about our ulterior motives at Crema.co: we want to make a dent in the world.

Starting May 1, between $.10 and $1 from each bag sold through our coffee subscription site will be donated to the SOPPEXCCA project, which addresses food security in the coffee farming community of Jinotega, Nicaragua, where 65% of the nation’s coffee is grown. This money will be used to fund multiple areas of focus, including microfinance for crop diversification, school education on nutrition, and the creation of the first organic farmer’s market in the area.

In this region, 28% of children under 5 are chronically undernourished. Lack of nutrition education, poverty, the seasonal ebb and flow of funds from coffee farming (both for landowners and for transient or seasonal workers), and lack of access to healthcare, are all contributing factors.

In 2010, the nonprofit organization Food4Farmers was founded to address seasonal hunger by partnering with coffee-growing organizations in Latin American communities. One such community is the SOPPEXCCA coffee cooperative in Jinotega, which has 520 member households in 18 first-level cooperatives. The average farm size is about 5 acres of coffee production.

The project kicked off in 2011 with a community diagnostic and the establishment of a food security committee to oversee all activities, and in 2013 Food 4 Farmers and SOPPEXCCA Food began working to grow more food locally, start new on-farm businesses to supplement income from coffee, and create affordable financing tools to do both. Monitoring systems were developed to make sure SOPPEXCCA could measure success and adjust strategy independently. The partnership’s goal is to see 80% of the cooperative’s households achieve food security within ten years, and we at Crema.co are pitching in to help make that happen.

Bit by bit, change CAN happen for the better. For every bag of coffee you explore through Crema.co, you’re helping feed the families who grow coffee in Jinotega.

Live well.