Coffee Growing Community facilitates holistic economic, social and spiritual development in communities whose economy is driven by coffee farming, processing and sales.
We work with coffee-farming families to maximize the quality and market value of their coffee, bringing promise of higher economic return for their good work. At the same time we partner to lift these farming communities from societal and spiritual issues that prevent them from thriving. Our dream is to participate in the renewal of all aspects of these communities so that economic, spiritual and social health work together to bring long term, community-wide well-being.
Coffee Growing Community is a a 501(c)(3) entity and our work is fueled by the generosity of individuals, families and organizations who want to help struggling communities realize sustainable well-being through the unique combination of pragmatic free-market principles, faith-based empathy and relational trust.
The idea for Coffee Growing Community was born in the mid-2000’s when our founder, Doug Cooper, happened to be drinking a cup of Peruvian coffee, as his teen-aged son, Nate, was in Peru on a mission trip. Being a coffee enthusiast, intrigued by all things having to do with coffee, it occurred to Doug that much of the poverty realized in Peruvian coffee-growing communities might be eliminated if the farmers at the heart of their economy could earn specialty-grade prices for their coffee and invest the money earned back into the local economy. The theory went like this: If small-family farms in Peru were earning better prices for their coffee, Nate’s mission trip to Peru might not have been necessary.
As Doug began to test this theory in Mexico, he realized that it was sound, but not quite as simple as he thought. Many small-scale coffee farmers are not producing specialty-grade coffee and have little or no money with which to invest in improvements that would elevate their coffee’s quality. At the same time, these farming communities lack access to trade partners who would recognize the value of specialty-grade coffee and pay higher prices. And, sadly, he learned that with poverty that comes with depressed coffee trade comes social and spiritual issues that severely weaken a community’s ability to pull itself out of its brokenness.
Coffee Growing Community is a response to these realities, and to the fact that prosperity and access to resources enjoyed in the United States can provide real solutions to these issues if we care enough, and are patient enough, to see them through.
There are lots of ways people live out their calling to serve others. Ours is pretty specific: We are called to help improve the quality of life for a few coffee-farming communities who have suffered hard times due to declines in their coffee prices and/or production! It’s not everyone’s calling but there are a few of us passionately trying to answer it. And we believe that, even among those of us who have this calling, our approach is pretty special and so it deserves a closer look.
At Goldberry Roasting Company, we have the unique opportunity to be a part of coffee’s journey from the seed to the cup. Through our committed relationships with coffee farmers and their communties, we have had our hand in helping improve existing coffee crop and cultivate new, improved ways of processing coffee beans. Due to our close relationship with the coffee farms and farmers, we care about getting the roast profile of our coffee exactly right. We work hard to highlight the flavors that farmers around the world have spent generations creating and preserving. That’s why it is so important for us to roast our coffee in small batches. By keeping our roasts small, we can ensure that we are bringing out the unique flavor profiles of each individual bean and the farm and region it came from. When someone serves or drinks our coffee, they play an important role in passing on the story and history of the people who nurtured and cared for the coffee long before it ever made it to our roastery.
We seek deep, trusting friendships with people in a handful of key coffee-growing communities throughout the world. We are looking for communities who value relationships, not as a means to an end, but as the source of empathy that leads to selfless collaboration. Without deep relationships there can be no trust, and without trust, very little good can happen
We believe that human connections are vital to life. Whether it’s forming friendships or sharing expertise, we connect farmers with encouragement, ideas and resources that improve process quality, product quality and quality of life. Then, we work to connect farmers’ success with the well-being of their communities
We rely on local churches and community leaders to surface and advance initiatives that will strengthen the spiritual and social health of the community while economic measures are gaining traction. We depend on close partnership with healthy churches and leaders, knowing that they understand their context and have earned trust, influence and access that would take decades for outsiders to develop.
We believe that a free-market economy can be small-scale coffee farmers' best friend if they learn to refine their practices and processes to produce adequate amounts of specialty grade coffee that actually earns higher prices within direct trade relationships. The backbone of our approach is to help farmers earn higher prices with quality coffee and to find direct trade partners who are willing to pay them.
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