Coffee Kids Central America Trip
While visiting Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador this Spring, I was able to meet some of the youth that are a part of our non-profit sponsorship efforts with Coffee Kids and learn more about the front half of the coffee production ecosystem. It’s so rare (especially for a marketer) to get the opportunity to go behind the scenes on an origin trip, so the team thought it would be interesting for me to share my trip highlights with all of you!
To take a step back, Cameron’s Coffee was one of three partner companies that joined the Coffee Kids team on this visit to Central America. Coffee Kids recently started offering these trips to their partners as an experiential way for us to learn about coffee producing communities, and for us to be able to share our experiences in other parts of the value chain with young farmers. It truly was a life changing trip from both a personal and professional standpoint! It’s hard to condense a week long immersion into a few blog posts, but that’s what I’m going to try to do.
We had a busy week visiting three countries in the Trifinio region, the tri-border area of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Our week consisted of meetings, workshops, cupping, and my personal favorite, field visits to the farms. My immediate impression of our partners and farmers in Central America is how genuinely thrilled they were to have us visiting! This trip was only Coffee Kids’ second time bringing partners into the field. I’m so glad that they’ve added this to their program!
It’s easy for those of us on this side of the supply chain to think that farmers are different people from us. Honestly, it’s because we think of them as “out there in the field” when we’re in roasting facilities and offices. However, our trip offered a unique perspective for not only us to learn from young farmers, but for them to also get a glimpse of what our lives are like. It was cool to directly see the impact we were making when we shared our companies success, and likewise, I was in awe of the risks, challenges, and business mindset these young farmers are taking. One piece I specifically found interesting was how Coffee Kids’ employees were giving access and teaching the young coffee farmers how to leverage technology to increase the yield, life cycle, and quality of their crops!
Be sure to keep checking back in on future blog posts where I share more about my awesome trip!
