Green Mountain Coffee working with coffee-growing communities to fight hunger

In the summer of 2007, CIAT (The International Center for Tropical Agriculture) conducted over 175 household interviews in communities that supply GMCR with coffee in Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua to better understand the challenges and opportunities these communities face. Through these interviews the issue of food security came to the forefront.

In April 2008, GMCR held a strategic summit with members of the CECOCAFEN coffee cooperative. The meeting used a participatory methodology that encouraged participants to list potential strategies to eliminate los meses flacos.

Two months after this Strategic Summit, GMCR received a proposal from CECOCAFEN to fund a pilot project that will last 3 years. The two strategies adopted by the communities are:

-Diversify each farmers coffee parcel by growing food for consumption and profit.

-Growing and storing basic grains

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• coffee
• CECOCAFEN
• food insecurity
• GMCR
• Green Mountain Coffee
• nicaragua
• matagalpa
• CIAT
• hunger