February 2012 Community Caravan
Feb. 4: Almeta Tulloss, our beloved coffeehouse manager at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, completes her last day before moving on to work for Broad River Pasture Farms in Elberton, Ga., as an apprentice. We thank Almeta for her two years of exceptional work and amazing spirit at our Sweet Auburn coffeeshop. The Atlanta food movement will anxiously await her return and her loyal customers will no doubt miss her smiling face in the coffeeshop. We know we will. Thank you, Almeta!! We love you and wish you the best on your good food journey! Your commitment and enthusiasm inspires us all.
Jan. 26: Café Campesino welcomed a group of visitors from Americus’s Brickyard Plantation. We were very happy to host the group, and hope they’ll come to visit us in Americus or Atlanta before they head north for the hot, summer months!
Jan. 27-28: Café Campesino, Sweetwater Organic Coffees and Café Campesino Sweet Auburn met in Americus to strategize 2012. We are grateful for a wonderful 2011 and excited about the year to come!!!
Feb. 4: Joel samples Café Campesino & promotes the upcoming Georgia Organics Conference at The Fresh Market in Columbus.
Feb. 4: Atlanta Culinary Tours visit Sweet Auburn Curb Market & Café Campesino Coffee Bar.
Feb. 13, 6:30 p.m.: Café Campesino screens the documentary, “Grow!” that follows 12 young Georgia farmers who are energized and ready to make a commitment to the local food movement. Join us for a great film and Q&A afterwards.
Feb. 18: Café Campesino & the Newman Catholic Center of Eastern Illinois University travel to Stewart Detention Center to offer comfort and support to Spanish-speaking immigrants who are currently being held there.
Feb. 24: Georgia Farm-to-School Summit in Columbus,Ga. Learn more about how to get healthy foods to our schoolchildren. www.georgiaorganics.org
Feb. 24: Café Campesino hosts a tour of 50 people from Georgia Organics’s 15th Annual “Plow Forward” Conference being held in Columbus. The group, which will include of food-lovers from across the Southeast, will travel to Café Campesino, Koinonia Farm and Providence Canyon before returning to Columbus for the 15th annual Georgia Organics Conference & Expo.
Feb. 24-25: Columbus hosts the 15th AnnualGeorgia Organics Conference & Expo. Workshops and classes for foodies, farmers, teachers, policy makers and concerned citizens take place over two days in Columbus. Attend the conference and learn what you can do to benefit the local, natural food economy. Keynote speakers include Will Allen and Michael Nischan.
April: Holy Week/Semana Santa: A group of committed Americus citizens will organize a “Pilgrimage for Immigrants” that will represent one of several walks across the state that show support, love and spiritual camaraderie with local immigrant families.
CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: BOXCAR GROCER
Café Campesino is thrilled to welcome Atlanta-based Boxcar Grocer as a new customer. With food justice at the core of its mission, Boxcar is setting new standards in retail grocery in Atlanta. It is committed to bringing locally sourced, sustainable and high-quality products to its Castleberry Hill neighborhood, an area of the city that had been previously underserved by grocery and fresh produce outlets. In addition to Café Campesino, Boxcar purchases from other community-oriented entities that include Truly Living Well Urban Farm, Johnston’s Family Farm, Sweet Georgia Grains and Dr. Bronner’s. We encourage you to stop in (249 Peters St. SW), grab a cup (or a bag) of Café Campesino and get to know Boxcar. Learn more at www.boxcargrocer.com
NEWSLETTER SPECIAL: VALENTINE’S SPECIALS: 14% OFF UGANDA VIENNESE ROAST & A NEW GIFT BOX
The most chocolaty of our coffee line-up, ourUganda Viennese Roast is on sale this month for 14% off. Use code: uganda2012 at the online checkout to redeem your discount. Good until Feb. 17th and it cannot be combined with any other discount. Also, check out our new “Love Birds Gift Box,” a selection of chocolates, 4 bird cards and a pound of our Atlanta Audubon Society Blend Coffee.
Just for Pun
Tarred of bland coffee? Pining away for a fresh, bold cup of joe? I don’t think I’m barking up the wrong tree when I say that I think Cafe Campesino fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee will resin-ate with your taste buds. Pardon the sappy puns. It’s simply an attempt to needle you into trying our coffee. Plus, Cafe Campesino – an evergreen company, is giving away loblolly pines at its Americus roastery. Come get a cup of joe, and take a tree with you! Treeeet yourself and your sappy neighbor to a few saplings on us. Cafe Campesino – rooted in this community and in your yard.
Customer Spotlight – The King Center
Café Campesino is pleased to welcome The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as a new customer! Dedicated to advancing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this Atlanta-based entity works to educate visitors about Dr. King’s life and teachings. Most recently, the King Center has partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to digitize more than 1 million documents written by Dr. King and other key figures of the Civil Rights Movement. Visitors to the King Center can explore the imaging project through touch-screen technology. Then, they can head to the King Center Bookstore and pick up a bag of Café Campesino’s King Center Blend. Learn more at: www.thekingcenter.org
Newsletter Coffee Special
Enjoy 10% off our Bolivian French Roast coffee when you order online. Enter code: “bolivia12” to redeem your discount. Discount good until Friday, January 27, 2012 and cannot combined with other discounts.
Extra Special
Do you consider yourself a competitive athlete? Then, try Dirty Spokes Productions’ 8.0 mile trail run on February 4! The course will go through Watkinsville’s scenic Heritage Park. Get 5$ off your mail-in entry fee by writing “Café Campesino” on your order form and returning it by Monday, Jan. 30th. OR- Tell us why you want to run this race on Facebook and be eligible to win a free entry! We’ll choose a winner on Friday, Jan. 20. http://www.dirtyspokes.com/tr_races.php?trraceid=3&trpageid=1
SOA Watch: Why We’re Committed
SOA Watch: Why We’re Committed
By: Bill Harris
In 1998, Cafe Campesino began as a small trading company grounded in a simple concept: by trading in an open, honest, respectful manner with economically disadvantaged farmers, we could in some small way make the world a better place. Cafe Campesino wanted to challenge traditional win-lose business models and instead help to create and guide a win-win international model for trade. Trade based on mutual respect, transparency, fair and honest practices with a desire to build friendships in coffee growing communities all over the world. A simple but somewhat revolutionary concept. This kind of thinking led us to surprising places – one of them being only 60 miles from our headquarters. As we learned more about why coffee farmers in Latin America were so poor, we learned about land rights and human rights abuses, the civil wars that ravaged Central America in recent decades, and atrocities committed by the military time and time again against peasant farmers in these countries where we buy coffee. And this led us to the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus Georgia. We do not attend the SOA Watch vigil and memorial service every year simply to protest – we attend to support an effort by tens of thousands of priests, nuns, students, and victims to close a small school that is housed within the grounds of Ft. Benning, supported by U.S. tax dollars, and used to train Latin American soldiers over whom we have no control once they leave US soil. Formerly called the School of the Americas, it is now called WHINSEC. While the school clearly taught torture techniques in the past, school officials say they have cleaned up the curriculum and that they now offer human rights courses alongside their counter-terrorism training. We want to see this school closed. Maybe the school has cleaned up its act; maybe at this point closure would only be a symbolic gesture. But symbolism carries tremendous weight – especially with the families of the thousands of innocent victims of this school’s graduates. Our country stands as a beacon of hope for so many from Latin America and beyond. We have asked hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens for sacrifices in the name of fighting terrorism, yet we continue to train foreign soldiers in dubious tactics that have directly led to the terrorism of villages and farming families. Why keep this school open? US taxpayers supporting a school that trains foreign fighters and have been directly connected to thousands of murdered victims in Latin America. . . It makes no sense. We have stood at the gates in support of the effort to close this school for 11 years, serving coffee to the masses, and we will continue to do so until it is closed.
September 2011: Community Caravan
More information about recent happenings and upcoming events….
Aug. 30- Catholic Relief Services Southeast U.S. Program Officer Michael Trujillo stopped by for a visit. We are very happy to know Michael and look forward to working more closely with CRS as a Fair Trade Roaster in the coming year.
Sept. 16- Live Music at Café Campesino in Americus! Café Campesino will host Chris Driggers, acoustic guitarist and singer for a live music night. Doors open at 6 p.m. Music begins at 7 p.m.
Sept. 24- Look for Café Campesino’s Atlanta Audubon Society Blend at the Atlanta Zoo, where the AAS will be participating in a special day for educators.
Oct. 1- The Atlanta Audubon Society will be at Glenwood Park’s Hotoberfest, where it will be selling pictures of migratory birds and its special blend of shade grown coffees from the Americas.
Oct. 2- Café Campesino and Little Red Hen Bakery will be at the Field of Greens Festival in Whippoorwill Hollow Farms in Walnut Grove, Ga. Get tickets online at http://www.fieldofgreensfestival.com/ or ask Maria at the Decatur, East Atlanta or Grant Park Farmers’ Markets. If you love food and in the Atlanta-Athens area, this is a must-do event!
Oct. 15-16- Find Café Campesino at the Atlanta Audubon Society’s booth at the Candler Park Festival in Atlanta. Not to be missed!
Oct. 22- Capoochino Day! Join us for a dog wash and other festivities as we raise money for the Sumter County Humane Society.
Fall 2011: Café Campesino coffee can be found at a number of Farmers’ Markets this fall. Find us at the following: Morningside Market in Virginia Highland on Saturday mornings; Decatur Farmers’ Market with Little Red Hen on Saturday mornings; Grant Park Farmers’ Market with Little Red Hen on Sunday mornings; East Atlanta Farmers’ Market with Little Red Hen on Thursday evenings and East Point Farmers Market, one Saturday a month (Aug. 13, Sept. 10, Oct., 8 and Nov. 12).
SAVE THE DATE! Feb. 24-25, 2012: Georgia Organics’ 15th Annual Conference will be held in Columbus this year! Expect fantastic farm tours of the area, informative educational sessions and a meal of a lifetime at the Farmers’ Feast on Saturday evening. Learn more about attending at www.georgiaorganics.org or consider setting up an exhibit booth or participating as a sponsor. Contact Sandy Layton at sandy@georgiaorganics.org for more information on sponsorship opportunities.
New Coop Coffees Chair: Tripp!
Cooperative Coffees Members (plus Tripp- beige shirt, leaning on rail) picutred during the 2011 Annual General Meeting held in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories- the home of fellow coop member, Bean North.
During Cooperative Coffees’ Aug. 18-21 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, roaster members elected a new chair of for the coop’s board of directors, and he is none other than [insert imagined drum roll] our own Tripp Pomeroy! As chair, Tripp will represent the 24 roaster members who make up Cooperative Coffees – the one-of-a-kind green coffee importing cooperative that allows Café Campesino to work directly – and fairly – with farmers.
This is an especially exciting time for Cooperative Coffees, as Janet Utecht was hired earlier this year as the organization’s new executive director and the cooperative embarked on a three-year strategic plan that it had developed over the past 12 months. Prior to becoming chair, Tripp served as vice-chair of the board of directors under the leadership of then-chair, Queen Bean Lee Wallace of Peace Coffee. Lee will remain on the board this year and will be joined by the following members: Helen Voogd of Bean North, who will be vice-chair; Mike Moon of Just Coffee, who is also vice-chair; Chris Treter of Higher Grounds, secretary; TJ Semanchin of Kickapoo Coffee, treasurer; Dan Bailey of Amavida Coffee; Glenn Lathrop of Desert Sun Coffee; Larry Larson of Larry’s Beans; Mike Mays of Heine Brothers’ Coffee and Terry Patano of DOMA Coffee Roasters.
Cooperative Coffees is the world’s only green coffee importing cooperative of roasters, bringing together 24 Fair Trade, organic coffee roasteries located in the United States and Canada. By the end of 2011, Cooperative Coffees will have purchased 3.5 million pounds of Fair Trade coffee from 22 farmer-owned cooperatives around the world. Café Campesino is a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, which was formed in 1999.