Customer Spotlight: Buck’s Coffee Cafe
Buck’s Coffee Cafe
Located in Cashiers, NC (about 10 miles NE of the original Buck’s Coffee Cafe in Highlands, NC), is a coffee house that knows how to treat the locals as well as those just passing through. You see, this small town within a picturesque setting is a popular destination for travelers seeking the beauty that is the mountains of Western North Carolina.
On multiple occasions now, we’ve heard from coffee drinkers who discovered Café Campesino coffee when they stopped into one of the Buck’s locations for a coffee break. Obviously, a good thing. And as far as serving the wants of the local community, co-owner Linda Clark tells us, “Many of our customers know us from our Highlands location. Buck’s Coffee Cafe in Highlands has for nine years been the gathering spot for friends, business associates, church and community organizations. Cashiers needed such a place too. We hear everyday from customers who live in Cashiers that are so happy to have a Buck’s Coffee Cafe in their own town. Our interior was designed to encourage lingering. Designed to make people feel at home and be a special place at the same time. Our mission at Cashiers is the same as in Highlands: To make and serve great coffee and high quality food and provide a gathering spot for the community. We proudly serve Café Campesino coffee because our customers love it.”
From the crew at Café Campesino as well as our producer partners around the coffee-growing world, we send a hearty “thank you” to Linda and Tommy Clark, their business partner Steve Clark (no relation), and all of the employees at both Buck’s Coffee Cafe locations. Cheers to you and to your support of local community as well as your support of fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee!
Misty Hamm (left) and Tanya Ferrin smile for the camera. As for the guy on the wall, might that be "Buck"?
Customer Spotlight: Grounded Coffee Shop
Grounded Coffee Shop
It’s clear that some things were meant to go together – peanut butter & jelly, peace & justice, Abbott & Costello. We’d like to add another worthy combination to the list – fair trade, organic coffee & scrumptious, homemade pastries.
Grounded (www.groundedcoffeeshop.com ) (“a down to earth” coffee shop) offers the best of both and we want to celebrate with them as they reach their one year anniversary later this month. Earth Day 2009, April 22nd, will mark this milestone for Candy and Wilfrid Briffa, a husband and wife pastry team who use their culinary skills to produce tasty baked treats for their clientele and support fair trade and organics by brewing & serving Cafe Campesino coffee in their bustling “new” business.
Their establishment is a family-friendly place with the usual tables, chairs, couches that you would find in lots of coffee shops. And to go along with that usual décor, they offer such things as a toy train table for the kids as well as the thoughtful amenity of a diaper changing table in the restroom. Their customers enjoy the coziness and the sense of community that has developed here in this first year. They share an awareness of the need to support the local “mom and pop” shops and it’s become a popular meeting place for this suburb of Washington, DC.
Good coffee and good pastry. Sounds like a match. Cheers and bon appetit, Grounded Coffee Shop. Here’s hoping that your second year is even sweeter! (and Happy Earth Day!)
Customer Spotlight: Destiny Produce
Destiny Produce of Atlanta, GA
Move over typical food service distributors… there’s a new kid on the block. Destiny Produce, founded in 2001 and located at the State Farmer’s Market in Atlanta, is dedicated to bringing the freshest, tastiest, organic meat, dairy, produce and, now, coffee to customers throughout the southeast. With a squarely focused mission to support organics, sustainability, and fair market prices for producers, they are bridging a gap in the all-too-often world of much-too-corporate, genetically modified, “sweatshop” foods and beverages. As an example of their dedication, their sustainability practices extend far beyond buying and selling organic products. In addition to an aggressive recycling program for all the boxes, pallets, and plastic they encounter in their day-to-day is a bold commitment to powering their fleet of trucks with “bio-diesel,” made from 20% pure chicken fat from Georgia!
Their founder and president, Dee Dee Digby, says, “We are so excited about our alliance with Cafe Campesino coffee. Destiny Produce has always supported small, organic farms, and we’ve built our reputation on those relationships. Coffee is a staple item, making organic agriculture vitally important to farmers in the coffee-growing regions. Destiny Produce is proud to be working with a Georgia company–Cafe Campesino–to develop a broader market for their excellent organic, fair-trade coffee throughout the Southeast.”
Tripp Pomeroy, president of Café Campesino, says, “When I visited with Dee Dee and her staff to share our story with them, I was deeply impressed with their level of commitment to fair trade and Cafe Campesino’s work in the movement. Not only do they place the highest value on organics and sustainability in their business model but they are also genuinely concerned about the quality of life of the producers whose foods they distribute; from the coffee farmer in Colombia or Ethiopia to the fair trade roaster in Americus, GA. Thanks to Destiny Produce, food distribution throughout the Southeast just made a great stride forward… we feel fortunate to be part of their growing network.”
Cafe Campesino embraces their approach and happily and humbly partners with a company whose efforts were recently honored with the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year Award. Congratulations, Destiny Produce! Job well done
Customer Spotlight: Manna Grocery & Deli
Café Campesino is pleased to feature our friends at Manna Grocery & Deli in this month’s edition of Fair Grounds. Co-owners Frances Self Drennen and Earl Drennen opened Manna in 1980, building a truly extraordinary organic market and deli based on high standards, quality and integrity, elements they consider central to their personal and professional philosophy. At Manna Grocery & Deli you’ll find Café Campesino coffee, delicious natural foods, herbal and vitamin supplements, natural body and skin-care products, items such as handmade Nepalese jewelry for the hard-to-shop-for friend, wind chimes, books on natural cooking, yoga and much more!
Next weekend, October 20th and 21st, Frances and Earl and the rest of the crew from Manna are teaming up with Tripp and Geoffrey to serve Café Campesino coffee at the nationally recognized Kentuck Festival, the Kentuck Museum’s annual celebration of the arts. So if you plan on being in the Tuscaloosa area, be sure to drop in for great coffee and a fun festival — and remember to stop by for a delicious lunch from their deli.
Manna Grocery & Deli is located at 2300 McFarland Boulevard, Suite 12 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Their telephone number is 205-752-9955 or 800-752-9950. To learn more, visit their website at www.mannagrocery.com.
Customer Spotlight: Critical Mass for the Masses
 a cdp brewstation Café Campesino is fortunate (and grateful) to have an ally in cdp digital download/coffee express and its founder Becky Afonso, a native Floridian who lives in the Tampa Bay area (Go Bucs!). The letters “c-d-p” have no particular meaning individually but were used to develop the company logo which looks like a cyclist on a bicycle. |
| Originally, cdp toured with five bicycle events, providing digital camera downloads to CDs (for those camera happy riders who filled up their memory cards), scenic postcards of the riding area, and offering the riders a chance to make postcards from their own digital photos during the event. In 2006, cdp expanded as cdp coffee express to offer coffee in the morning. They attended six additional tours that year with coffee supplied by a previous corporate employer.
But Becky wanted to switch the cyclists to Fair Trade coffee, so cdp and Café Campesino started talking business. We struck a deal and cdp and Café Campesino teamed up in 2007 to brew the Critical Mass blend at 11 different bicycle tours all over the United States, including Bike Florida, Bike Virginia, Michigander and Shoreline West in Michigan, Bike Northwoods and SAGBRAW in Wisconsin, and Cycle North Carolina. “The Fair Trade aspect of this coffee has made people feel even better about starting their day,” Becky Afonso states. “Getting a decent cup of coffee at a bicycle tour can be a little tricky, but when you serve a good tasting blend like Critical Mass, then tell people it’s a Fair Trade coffee, well, it’s nothing but smiles.” Check out their website for more information on this unique company. |
Customer Spotlight: Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza
When Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza, a non-profit women’s center in El Paso, Texas, began selling Cafe Campesino’s Fair Trade coffee more than a year ago, they hoped to change the way people think about the products they buy. Their impact has been much greater than they imagined though as they have revolutionized the Fair Trade movement in and around El Paso. We are so fortunate to have this great group of people as part of our Fair Trade family. On behalf of our everyone here at Café Campesino and our producer partners from throughout the coffee lands, thank you Nikki and everyone else at Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza for everything you are doing in the name of Fair Trade.
Café Campesino on the Border
by Nikki Hertel, Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza, El Paso, TX
Small groups of college students are gathered around the room. I ask them to guess how much coffee farmers get paid when we buy 10 pounds of non-Fair Trade coffee: $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $0.75. They gasp when I reveal to them that many coffee farmers get as little as $0.16 a pound for their coffee. I am always relieved by the gasps because they are sign that — even in this global economic system where most people do not care where their products come from or who is suffering as a result — there is still hope.
I work at Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza (Women of Hope Center), a non-profit women’s center in El Paso, TX, right on the border with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. We have many programs, including free classes for women, a sexual assault awareness program for high schoolers, a self-esteem building program for groups, retreats, and more.
A year and a half ago, we started selling and promoting Fair Trade coffee from Café Campesino because of our mission and goals — to transform structures that oppress women and their families at local, national, and international levels and to raise awareness of these issues. We believe that Fair Trade is a perfect way not only to transform the oppressive economic system that creates great suffering, but also empower women and their families throughout the world.
The Fair Trade movement in El Paso has grown considerably in the past couple of years, but it is still just beginning. It started when Centro Mujeres began ordering the coffee and selling it out of the office. We then teamed up with a parish, selling the coffee after mass the first Sunday of each month. Support grew as more and more people were introduced to the delicious and good-for-the-soul Café Campesino. Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza has become the “hub” for Fair Trade in El Paso. We sell Fair Trade certified coffee, tea, hot cocoa and chocolate bars at wholesale prices. We are currently selling about 160 pounds of Café Campesino every month. We also create Fair Trade gift baskets that make great alternative presents.
We work hard to increase the Fair Trade market in the area by educating consumers as well as local restaurant owners on the importance of Fair Trade. While the struggle seems tough at times, we have been encouraged by some recent victories that resulted from simple conversations. A couple months ago one of the largest and most popular restaurants in El Paso decided to switch over to serving only Fair Trade certified coffee in their restaurant, as well as selling one pound bags. Also, a local coffee shop decided they would begin serving only Fair Trade coffee. Neither owner had heard of Fair Trade before we mentioned it to them. We have also connected with another coffee shop that sells Fair Trade coffee to raise awareness in the community. Slowly but surely, the movement grows.
Another aspect of our work is giving Fair Trade talks to groups that come to town from all over the country for border immersion experiences (they spend about a week here learning about the reality of the border). We have met with student groups from universities such as Stanford, Creighton, Regis, Dartmouth, Pacific Lutheran, and adult groups from organizations and parishes across the country. When we talk with groups like the ones mentioned above, we challenge them to think more deeply about how their consumption affects people throughout the world. We get them thinking about how Fair Trade relates to the border and immigration issues. If people in countries south of the United States could make a decent living, they would not have to suffer the dangers and isolation of leaving home and family to attempt to come to the U.S. Fair Trade is an issue that hits close to home in the border region. Through these talks, we have made some very valuable connections with people all over the country who are interested in doing more with Fair Trade in their communities.
We have many great plans for the future, which include: an open house for local restaurant and coffee shop owners to explain the importance of Fair Trade and let them try it for themselves, promoting it at more parishes, planning a trip to the Café Campesino co-op in Chiapas, continued education of groups that come for border immersion trips as well as for locals, and more collaboration with others who are passionate about Fair Trade. So though we are a small operation and perhaps an unlikely player in the Fair Trade movement, we are doing what we can because we believe that our mission — and that of all humans — is to transform the suffering of others and love each other more fully.
To learn more, contact:
Centro Mujeres de la Esperanza
1000 Wyoming Ave. El Paso, TX
(915) 545-1890
centromujeres@sbcglobal.net
Customer Spotlight: Sweet Temptations
Sweet Temptations… mmgood! Café Campesino is thrilled to introduce our friends at Sweet Temptations, who not only serve up Café Campesino just about any way it can (and should) be served, but who also offer a most delectable range of fresh baked scones, muffins and biscuits as well as other gourmet breakfast pastries, breakfast sandwiches (using real eggs, made to order), frozen drinks, hand-dipped ice creams, lunch plates, specialty deserts and more! Between raising their kids, running Sweet Temptations and making their customers happy, owners Young and Surelyne Lee are truly extraordinary folks. Café Campesino is extremely grateful for their support and willingness to represent us at the 3rd Annual Amigos for Christ Fiesta. We strongly advise that anyone in the Suwanee area who needs a fresh cup of Café Campesino and, say, a mouth watering chocolate horn or strudel take the time to visit Sweet Temptations, located at 350 Town Center Avenue, Suite 101 in Suwanee (located within Town Center Park at the intersection of Buford Hwy & Lawrenceville Suwanee Road). Sweet Temptations is open Tuesday through Thursday, 8 am to 8:30 pm; Friday, 8 am to 10 pm, Saturday, 10 am to 10 pm and Sunday, 10 am to 8:30 pm. Oh, and by the way, they cater! For more information call them at 678-482-8241.
Customer Spotlight: Sobornost for the World Foundation
Sobornost for the World Foundation’s
World Village Fair Trade Market
Café Campesino is delighted to feature our friends at Sobornost for the World Foundation, Inc. and their World Village Fair Trade Market in this month’s edition of Fair Grounds. For more than a year now, they have been steadfast supporters of Café Campesino.
The members of Sobornost for the World Foundation “aspire to promote justice, love and peace in a world scarred by inequality and injustice” and “strive to bring into our communities an awareness of the exploitation of our poor sisters and brothers in developing countries and to promote understanding of involvement in Fair Trade.” Further, they “seek to extend aid to impoverished orphans and families, so each person can live in dignity, beginning in sub-Saharan Africa.”
In addition to helping AIDS orphans in Kenya and Zambia with programs that provide financial support for their food, housing, education, and school supplies, Sobornost for the World works to foster dignity, solidarity, and subsidiarity towards Africa, as well as other developing nations through information, public advocacy, monetary aid and Fair Trade. In 2003, Sobornost opened the World Village Fair Trade Market, Long Island’s first Fair Trade store, which sells Fair Trade products from over 20 developing countries.
What makes the World Village Fair Trade Market so special though is the genuine dedication of its volunteer staff to “peace, justice and equality for the people of developing nations by becoming a bridge for these nations while operating in America, and cultivating projects that enhance communication, trade and friendship.” They work tirelessly to promote Fair Trade crafts and bring greater awareness to their customers, local communities and churches of Fair Trade and what can be achieved on a personal level by buying Fair Trade goods, contacting government officials, and joining national and international campaigns.
To learn more about Sobornost for the World Foundation and their World Village Fair Trade Market, visit www.fairtrademarket.org or call (631) 728-7880.
Customer Spotlight: Rainbow Natural Grocery
Café Campesino is thrilled to introduce you to one of our newer customers: Rainbow Natural Grocery. In the short time that we have known each other, the folks at Rainbow have demonstrated an inspiring, genuine commitment to Café Campesino and our work as a fair trade coffee company. Located in Jackson, Mississippi, Rainbow Natural Grocery is a non-profit cooperative grocery owned and operated by its members. Formed in 1980 from a handful of citizens in a whole foods buying club, it has grown to over 200,000 members and continues to see tremendous growth as our city moves toward healthier lifestyles and eating habits.
The Rainbow strives to remain active in its community through education, fundraising, and participation in addition to offering locally farmed produce and honey, organic grocery, supplements, hygiene, and choice fair trade, shade grown coffees. The Rainbow has spawned the world’s first Computer Co-op as well as state’s first vegetarian and vegan restaurant which also prepares school lunches for the local Montessori School. They are presently involved in efforts to place playground equipment in a local park, riding in the National Multiple Sclerosis Bike Tour, sitting on discussion panels at local colleges, and a host of other activities. If you find yourself in Jackson, be sure to stop by The Rainbow at 2807 Old Canton Road. Their telephone number is 601-366-1602.
Customer Spotlight: Apoteca, Eatonton, GA
Café Campesino is truly pleased to feature our friends at Apoteca, located about an hour southeast of Atlanta, in this month’s Fair Grounds Customer Spotlight. Apoteca, a natural body care and supplement shop, opened this past Spring in the Lake Oconee area. It is unique in that all products meet European standards for safety and efficacy, standards that are far higher than those mandated by the US FDA. “We have already done the homework, so customers can walk through the door and feel good about our product choices,” says Stacey Johnson. The strict ingredient guidelines led Apoteca to stock many European and Pacific Island lines, including Dr. Hauschka, Lavera, Logona, Weleda, Bod, Trilogy and Decleor. Vitamins are also carefully screened so that they contain no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or fillers.
Additionally, Apoteca makes an effort to carry products from companies that are environmentally and socially responsible, a philosophy that led them to Café Campesino Fair Trade coffees. All teas carried are Fair Trade and they are also considering the addition of Fair Trade chocolate.
“We have really enjoyed educating customers on Fair Trade business practices,” commented Brynn Horne, Apoteca associate. People love to sample the Café Campesino coffees in the store, and they are always impressed with the quality and aromas.”
If you are anywhere near Atlanta, we recommend making a visit to Apoteca, located at 114 Harmony Crossing, Suite 3, Eatonton, GA 31204. Their telephone number is 706-923-0330.