Coffee Camp in Guatemala
The Coffee Camp and Kindergarten Program began in 2012 as an educational strategy to prevent child labor in Guatemala and contribute to school readiness in rural coffee growing areas. Raising awareness throughout the coffee chain in preventing child labor, was a main goal. Since then, the program has extended to five centers in different coffee growing regions throughout Guatemala.
The program, managed by Funcafé, a local non-profit organization, wanted to provide coffee worker’s a place for their children during the harvest season. The program aims to teach kids between 4 and 12 years old about farming skills, writing, reading, and other crafts and activities in addition to two meals per day and one health clinic.
Millcreek Coffee works with The Coffee Source to identify areas of need in the coffee growing regions in which we purchase coffee. Starting in 2019, $.05 of every pound purchased by our company goes toward the Coffee Camp and Kindergarten program. We are proud to support the Acatenango region where we purchase our coffee.
Costa Rica Casas de La Alegría
A countrywide initiative called Casas de la Alegría, created daycares for the coffee harvest workers. The program provides migrating families coming to the regions to pick coffee, a place for their children to safely stay during the day. The program provides a safe, healthy, fun environment for the children as well as supplemental education and three meals per day. The initiative now has 19 running daycares during the harvest season. This benefits farmers by being able to hire coffee pickers with access to daycares as well as coffee picking families. Since children have a place to go, it allows both parents to pick coffee thus increasing their income and mitigates child labor. Millcreek Coffee Roasters is proud to support this program by giving a portion of every pound purchased of Costa Rican coffee.
Colombia Projects
Our Colombian project focuses on training women related to coffee production and coffee quality as well as supporting clean water access in the region. Colombian coffee farming families have been facing multiple environmental and social challenges in the last few years. Women play a significant important role in the management of the farms in the development of their communities yet are on an uneven playing field regarding access to training, tools, and resources that could be used to better improve their coffee, livelihood, and overall prosperity in their communities. By identifying specific challenges women in Asogratol and Amucaflome Associations were facing, this project was able to provide direct support to 51 women in the improvement of access to safe and potable drinking water, improvement of coffee milling through access to electricity, and training in relevant areas around coffee and empowerment. This was possible due to the financial collaboration provided by Millcreek Coffee Roasters and other partners. As a women-owned business, we are proud to be a part of helping women in coffee growing regions.
By identifying specific challenges women in Asogratol and Amucaflome Associations were facing, this project was able to provide direct support to 51 women in the improvement of access to safe and potable drinking water, improvement of coffee milling through access to electricity, and training in relevant areas around coffee and empowerment. This was possible due to the financial collaboration provided by Millcreek Coffee Roasters and other partners. As a women-owned business, we are proud to be a part of helping women in coffee growing regions.
Shop nowDecaf Colombia
Our purchases of our Decaf Colombian coffee contribute to building water filtration systems in coffee farming communities in Colombia through The Farmgate Initiative. In coffee communities in rural Colombia, ongoing conflict in many areas has made it difficult to implement social development projects. These communities are among the 1.6 million people in Colombia who did not have access to clean, safe water. Now, expanding peace is making it possible to invest in these rural, coffee-growing communities and build essential infrastructure to improve lives. We are happy to be purchasing the Decaf in the Tumba region to support this project.