As a conscious consumer and WCCN investor, donor, or admirer, perhaps you've taken to reading this newsletter over a cup of your favorite fair trade coffee. There's a good feeling in knowing that the farmers profiled in our pages are supported not only by your commitment to WCCN, but also by your daily cup. WCCN and a strong network of ethical partners are making sure that the farmers and cooperatives at the very source of this $100 billion industry get their fair share.
From the windows of WCCN’s offices in Madison, Wisconsin, we see shoppers exiting Metcalfe’s Market with bags of groceries and a warm coffee in their hands. We’re proud to have had a hand in getting that coffee into their hands. That coffee was produced by COMSA and then roasted by True Coffee Roasters, our neighbors in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Partnering with WCCN in 2010 and having since graduated from our programs, the majority of COMSA’s 245 affiliates are Lenca people, a Central American indigenous group, who reside in the southwestern region of the country which is the poorest zone of Honduras. The organic coffee farmers used a part of the proceeds from the sale to build the cooperative’s infrastructure and financed an emergency generator for a hospital and established a scholarship fund to ensure the education of their children. So next time you take a sip in the grocery aisle, you can know that your coffee is powering a hospital as well as your shopping trip.
