Fighting Poverty and Hunger
in our Coffee Supply Chain
In 2006, we launched an initiative to fight poverty and hunger in our coffee supply chain in partnership with the Sustainable Food Lab, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and other stakeholders in our supply chain.
Over the course of our research in 2006-2007, we learned about the pressing issue of cyclical and temporary food insecurity in our supply chain, a phenomenon commonly referred to in these communities as los meses flacos, or the “thin months.” This period of time generally starts a few months after the coffee harvest — families’ earnings from coffee have been largely depleted and the prices of corn and beans, two staples in the diet, are cyclically high. Families cope by eating less, eating less expensive (and usually less healthy) foods, or by borrowing against future earnings to make ends meet.
As a result, we reevaluated our criteria for making grants in coffee-growing communities, clarifying our intention to fund work with direct impact on the ground in the areas of human and economic development, and reached directly out into our supply chain to offer our support to help fight the thin months. 
Highlights of our work on food security in FY ’09 include:
- We approved a $500,000 grant over three years to support a Save the Children project in northern Nicaragua focused on bringing sustainable solutions to annual, cyclical months of food insecurity that range from 2-8 months per year.
- We pledged $200,000 to fund a five-year Heifer International project in and around Jaltenango, Chiapas, Mexico – the home of CESMACH, a fair trade coffee cooperative, and the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve – to help diversify food production, increase farmer incomes, and strengthen local organizations.
- We pledged $140,000 over four years to support a partnership with the University of Vermont to monitor and evaluate a food security project focused on the CECOCAFEN coffee-producing cooperative in Nicaragua.
- We worked with a researcher from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture to help coffee farmers in northern Peru overcome the problem of “tired” soil. With our support, cooperative farmers are building a plant to provide locally produced, effective, low-cost organic fertilizer.
