Coda Coffee, a Denver-based specialty coffee roaster and sustainable wholesaler, today announced its Farm2Cup program. The program aims to continuously improve Coda’s coffee quality and positively impact farming communities around the world. Through the Farm2Cup program, Coda Coffee invests money and works directly with coffee farmers, who then reinvest in their coffee and community. Coda expects Farm2Cup participants to use the funds they receive for research, development, experimentation, best practice sharing and sometimes inner-village or cross-community competitions to improve coffee quality. The program also requires farmers to give back to their local community.
Coda Coffee informally implemented the program as a business practice about two years ago, but is now formalizing the program, launching www.farm2cup.org and labeling the coffee bags for customers and partners.
“By simply drinking Farm2Cup coffee, you know you’re enjoying a product that supports people around the world,” said Tim Thwaites, Coda Coffee co-founder. “In addition, the coffee exceeds taste and quality expectations because of best practice sharing and the traceability of the coffee from farm to cup.”
Farm2Cup can drastically impact the livelihood of the farmer’s family, employees and even an entire village. Coda Coffee works with farmers around the world, in countries such as Guatemala, Ethiopia, Brazil and Honduras. Some examples of how Farm2Cup funds have helped farmers and communities include:
- El Salvador: Coda Coffee held fundraisers for a school in Ayutepeque, which funded a new kitchen, utensils, desks and chairs for the children. Additionally, the community is working on plans for a school library.
- Guatemala: In Guatemala, Coda purchases high quality micro lots of coffee to encourage overall product improvement. The community has also held cupping competitions, where the local coffee farmers come together to have their coffee graded. The premium that Coda Coffee pays for the best coffee has helped build a road to A’Achimbal, a school, church, community center and 80 homes with electricity and running water.
- Las Capucas, Honduras: Cupping competitions in Honduras also helped improve coffee quality, which increased the coffee’s price and allowed one community to build cupping labs, a wet mill and a dry mill.
Coda Coffee performs site visits and its importer, Atlas Coffee Importer, assists with annual quality control checks. The trips are to make sure that farmers are spending time and money on improving their products and communities, which allows them to stay in the Farm2Cup program.
“There is a great story behind every cup of Farm2Cup coffee,” added Tommy Thwaites, Coda Coffee co-founder. “This program helps personalize those stories and makes a global purchase feel local. A better quality of life for our farmers actually does make a better cup of coffee for our customers.”
To learn more about the program, visit www.farm2cup.org. To find Farm2Cup coffee, look for the Farm2Cup logo at coffee shops. Farm2Cup products are available where Coda Coffee is sold. To find a retail location near you that serves Coda Coffee, visit www.codacoffee.com.
