Just Coffee Cooperative

Timor-Leste's highest peak.

Last August Just Coffee raised a whopping $1660.00usd at the Producer2Producer (P2P) Fundraiser. Combined with money raised at a previous presentation held at Java Cat, Just Coffee has now managed to save a total of $1835.00usd for the P2P fund!

The P2P fund will go to send someone from LaFEM cooperative on a Just Coffee Delegation to meet another group of Central American or Caribbean coffee growers that Just Coffee also purchases coffee from. The trip will serve as an educational and skills exchange and is something that LaFEM has been wanting to do since the initiation of their relationship with Just Coffee. You should know by now, but in case you don't, LaFEM is an all-womens coffee growing cooperative and women’s advocacy group, located in and near Estell, Nicaragua. Just Coffee is very happy to soon be able to finally make this dream a reality.

Because of the great success of the P2P Fundraisers, and the support of Just Coffee's customers and friends, Just Coffee raised enough money to be able to not only send someone from LaFEM to visit another group of coffee producers, but also to send someone from the cooperative that LaFEM visits on a Just Coffee Delegation to visit LaFEM. A real exchange indeed! The lives of coffee growers are not easy and an exchange such as this, or travel of any kind at all for that matter, is not common in their lives. Just Coffee hopes foster a great educational opportunity for these growers as well as continue to build and strengthen our relationships with these growers and their relationships with each other.

  (Just Coffee friends Ambra & Corey Hart who helped with organization, advertising, and execution of the P2P Fundraiser. Ambra was an excellent mc and Corey Hart played a sample of his fantastic music. Corey is local to Madison so definitely check out his music!)

Check out my new little Pilates blog if you're interested.

Here is a nice article about Just Coffee customer, Red Rooster Coffee House in Aberdeen, SD.  Not everything appears to be entirely  accurate in the article but the author certainly got one important thing right...Red Rooster is a great Coffee House run by generous and caring people who work hard to build a fantastic cultural center and community gathering place where all are welcome.

Here are some more oldish photos of Dr. Van Lopik and his students from the College of the Menomonie Nation visiting Just Coffee in June 2009.  Besides having a tour of Just Coffee's facilities they also had a chance to sit down with Hector for some good coffee talk about the coffee industry in general and coffee in Timor-Leste. 

The College of the Menomonie Nation purchases coffee from Just Coffe to sell on their campus...Native Americans buying coffee grown and processed by indigineous peoples around the world.  College of the Menomonie Nation also supports its students to take Just Coffee delegation to visit the coffee producing groups that it works in solidarity with.  In 2005 CMN traveled with Just Coffee to Chiapas, Mexico to meet Zapatista coffee growers...a unique and wonderful experience indeed!

The are oldish photos of Hector and I working at the Just Coffee booth at the Progressive Magazine's 100th Anniversary.

Madison, May 2009

Seed Project Update – July 2009


Laclubar:

Mana Elvira and Sr. Anacletus have started a small seed bank. Anacletus is a school teacher in Orlalan who has been working with the groups participating in the sub-district of Laclubar. He is from Oecussi and has married into one of the local clans. He was trained in advanced agricultural and horticultural techniques during the Indonesian period. He runs a small nursery at his house, which is just below the main water supply point in Dirikun. Anacletus has been grafting citrus trees for international NGOs such as CARE, and several UN agencies who have conducted projects in the Laclubar back in 2003 through 2006. Anacletus has been planting apples from seed, in the absence of any ongoing support from any of these agencies.

Thanks so much to Barbara Alvarado for making this great poster!

Check out this ultra cool video about the work that BUILD students from Tufts University have been doing in Santa Anita in Guatemala! This video interviews several talented Tufts students as well as members of the Santa Anita community and shows the opening of the Centro de Computacion Rodrigo Asturias (the Rodrigo Asturias Computer Center). BUILD students have done excellent work in Santa Anita. It is very exciting and will certainly make Just Coffee's communication with the community much more efficient!