Community Caravan
COMMUNITY CARAVAN
Americus -
Another excellent summer event season is upon us with the occurrence of BRAG (Bike Ride Across Georgia) and Paddle GA in June. Geoffrey and Nick served hundreds upon hundreds of gallons of coffee and mucho iced mochas between the two events. Here’s a pic of the traveling coffee house during Paddle GA:
June 15th saw a nice turnout for a Mexican fiesta as a fundraiser for our local Habitat for Humanity softball team. Good food and fun.
June 22nd: Carrie Wagner of Asheville, NC, visited for a book signing and presentation detailing her experiences as a Habitat for Humanity worker in Uganda. The book and more info are available here.
June 28th: Another poetry night at the coffee house for the Americus-Sumter Poetry Society. Stay tuned for their next event.
July 17th-25th: Tripp, Bill, and 4 others are headed to Colombia to visit our friends and partners at Fondo Paez. It has been a tough year for the Fondo Paez community. We hope that they find encouragement in Cafe Campesino’s visit. We find encouragement and consider it a special time when able to visit our producer partners. And we hope to have full details of the adventure in next month’s edition of Fair Grounds.
August – The Cafe Campesino Coffee House turns two years old in August! Stay tuned for info about a celebration that is in the planning stages as this edition goes to “print”.
Atlanta -
Wednesday, June 23: Café Campesino Atlanta partnered with Grady Hospital’s Vocational Rehabilitation Department to sample iced coffees & teas to students at Georgia State University. Grady will be sampling with Café Campesino Atlanta every Wednesday during the summer. Thanks, Grady!
Thursday, July 1: Fair Trade Book Club met in Atlanta. Reading: The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade by David Ransom. ContactCaroline DeMitchell for details.
Friday, July 9: Screening of coffee trade documentary, “Black Gold,” in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn Curb Market. Café Campesino Atlanta partners with Slow Food Atlanta, the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, Green City Market, and the Atlanta Audubon Society to put on a screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary, “Black Gold,” which details the Ethiopian coffee trade and underscores the need for the Fair Trade alternative. Food and drinks (including a generous beer donation from 5 Seasons Brewing-Westside) will begin at 6:15 p.m. in the market. Movie & discussion follow. Register online! The Sweet Auburn Curb Market is located at 209 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta, Georgia.
Thursday, July 15: Fair Trade Book Club meets in Atlanta. Reading: The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry- from Crop to the Last Drop by Nina Luttinger and Gregory Dicum. ContactCaroline DeMitchell to participate.
Thursday, July 29: Fair Trade Book Club meets in Atlanta. Reading: Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability and Survival, by Daniel Jaffee. Contact Caroline DeMitchell to participate.
Friday, July 30: Atlanta’s Urban Picnic, hosted by the Sweet Auburn Curb Market. Atlanta’s Urban Picnics bring together street food vendors and other grab-and-go fresh and tasty food stands to the market the final Fridays of the spring and summer months. Café Campesino Atlanta will be serving up iced coffees and teas.
Sweetwater Organic Coffee in Gainesville, FL -
Sweetwater has been invited to serve coffee alongside other local businesses by the Alachua County Office of Sustainability. In partnership with Florida Organic Growers, Abundant Edible Landscapes, Univ. of Florida’s Young Entrepreneurs in Leadership and Sustainability, and the Downtown Rotary Club’s generous sponsorship, the group will install an organic demonstration garden on Saturday, July 10th, at the County Administration Building on the corner of University Ave. and Main St. in Downtown Gainesville. The area will be a living classroom for growing organic fruits and vegetables while providing fresh, healthy, and local food to nutritionally disadvantaged communities in the area.
On July 22nd, Sweetwater will be giving a tour of the roastery to the YELS - Young Entrepreneurs in Leadership and Sustainability – from the University of Florida.
Community Caravan
Tis the season… for coffee-related events:
Nov. 7th – Habitat for Humanity ReStore Grand Re-Opening – Jason served up lots of coffee samples at our neighbor’s unveiling of a newly remodeled store for recycled and reclaimed building materials. Thanks for inviting us and hats off to their new digs.
Tripp visits Univ. of Florida (again) – Tripp has been enjoying multiple invitations to speak with groups at UF. Most recently, he participated in a panel discussion regarding sustainability practices and also spoke with a group of graduate students at The Poe Center for Business Ethics Education and Research.
Visitors from Atlanta area – Our friend and Program Officer at Catholic Relief Services Southeast, Simone Blanchard, recently brought an interfaith group comprised of Christians, Muslims, and Jews to Americus. Their stops included a visit to our coffee house, a tour of Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village, and a stayover at Koinonia Farm where they learned some of the civil rights history of our area. We hope to see them again.
Nov. 14th – Our Café Campesino Grand Opening celebration was a hit. Thanks to everyone who showed up to support us! We had more than 50 people stop by our new coffee shop in the Sweet Auburn Curb Market to sample some of our favorite coffees and Maria’s signature cookies, scones and muffins. Our Atlanta crew is also selling holiday gift baskets and 1-pound bags of coffee for take home, so put it on your list of places to shop over the next few weeks. It is open Monday-Friday 6:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., and parking is free with validation. Also, if you are in Atlanta, check out the Sweet Auburn Curb Market’s Holiday Tree Decorating Contest, which donates decorated trees to needy families in the Atlanta area. First place winners of the contest get a FREE beer tasting for 20 people at Five Seasons Brewing Co. in Atlanta. Learn more online.
Café Campesino Atlanta, inside the Sweet Auburn Curb Market, 209 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta 30303. (404) 254-2029.
Nov. 18th – a live music event – Information Superhighway, from Chicago, Ill., warmed up the coffee house and warehouse on a chilly night with their super music that included many tracks from their latest album “First Morning”. The night was a hit and we hope to see them back here at the roastery sometime in Spring 2010. In the meantime, you can check out their MySpace page:myspace.com/informationsuperhighwaychicago
Nov. 21st and 22nd – Geoffrey, Bill, Dave, and a group of fair trading partners from Eastern Illinois University brewed and served more than 240 gallons (that’s right, I said GALLONS!) of coffee to many of the thousands who attended the School of the Americas Vigil at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA. It was a bit cool and rainy but that didn’t keep the vigilers away and it certainly didn’t slow down coffee sales. Café Campesino is proud to donate all profits from this event to SOA Watch each time we attend (now in our 11th year). To learn more about SOA Watch and the annual vigil, visitwww.soaw.org.
Group from Eastern Illinois University that handled serving the bulk of the 240 gallons of coffee to the thousands of thirsty vigilers. We couldn’t have done it without their help!
Nov. 30th – El Salvador – Tripp just headed down to El Salvador with Cooperative Coffee’s producer relations manager Monika Firl to meet with our friends at ACOES as well as a number of other coffee cooperatives in the country. Tripp and Monika will be there for an action-packed week of meetings and producer visits. Stay tuned for updates as they become available.
Dec. 11th – Our Annual Holiday Open House – Join us from 7pm to 9pm at the roastery and coffee house for fun, food, coffee, and conversation at this Friday night event. We’ll also have some gift items and ideas available for your shopping pleasure. We welcome you to come and hang out with us to celebrate the season.
Dec. 12th- Café Campesino Atlanta hosts a Holiday Open House Extravaganza! The day includes a free Candy House Decorating Party- Café Campesino Atlanta provides edible houses and supplies and you do the decorating; Holiday Harp Music from 2-4 pm and a 10% Discount all day long on holiday gift baskets and whole bean coffee. Join them for the fun!
Dec. 19th – Café Campesino Atlanta will be celebrating the Sweet Auburn Curb Market’s Christmas Holiday Fest. Winners for the Holiday Tree Decorating Contest will be announced at 1 p.m. Learn more at sweetauburncurbmarket.com
***Holiday schedules for Americus and Atlanta***
Café Campesino Atlanta will be closed Friday, Dec. 25, Saturday, Dec. 26. and Friday, Jan. 1. Regular store hours are Monday-Friday, 6:30am-5:30pm and Saturday from 8am-5pm.
Our Roastery and Coffee House in Americus will be closed Dec. 24,25,26,31 and Jan. 1. Regular hours are Monday-Friday, 7:30am-5:30pm and Saturday 9am-1pm.
Community Caravan
The coffee house has officially been open for 1 year! In honor of this special occasion, we will be celebrating big this Saturday, August 15th!
We will open as usual from 9am-2pm. Come by during this time to get free coffee by the cup & take advantage of our special: Bring a friend & buy one drink, get one free.
Then, come back at 7pm with your favorite dish for a potluck dinner. Plan on hanging around to enjoy live music provided by our friends, Fat Jackson! We will also be doing raffles & giveaways throughout the evening.
Later this month, Café Campesino will host Miguel Tzoy from Guatemala for an extended stay in Americus. Miguel is the commercialization manager of Asociaci�n Chajulense Va’l Vaq Qujol, a coffee cooperative based in the remote mountains of Quiche in Guatemala. Tripp and Bill visited Miguel and Coop Chajul in June, and crafted a plan for Miguel to visit Americus in order to practice his English and learn how we operate Café Campesino and Cooperative Coffees. He will end his stay in the states by traveling with us to the Cooperative Coffees Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas in late September. We are looking for local volunteers to work with Miguel on his English – please call us if you are interested!
Movie Night - August 13th – Stop by the cafe this Thursday for a FREE viewing of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the 1975 classic Jack Nicholson film that won a slue of awards including 5 Oscars. One reviewer describes the movie as “a great order vs. chaos tale that everyone can relate to.” Doors open at 7:30pm. Movie starts at 8:00.
Jason to NY - Jason “Give my regards to Broadway” Foster, a barista since day one of the Café Campesino Coffee House, has pulled up stakes (at least temporarily) to try his hand as a Production Assistant on the set of a TV show filming in New York City. “White Collar” can be seen this fall on USA Network. We wish him the best! Side note: Jason left behind his trademark tam. We’re considering making it the first piece of memorabilia inducted into the yet-to-be-formed Café Campesino Barista Hall of Fame. Either that or Tripp and Bill will take turns wearing it around the office.
Fuller Center Bike Adventure - Only a couple of days left of this nearly 1300 mile bicycle ride. It ends August 16th along the Gulf Coast of Florida, just south of Tallahassee. Check out http://fullercenterbiketrip.com/ and click on the BLOG links for some fun and inspiring stories from their trip to raise funds for much needed housing.
The Fuller Center “biker gang” stopped by this Monday for their lunch break as well as a chat about fair trade and fundraising for a cause. They are in Americus working on the rehabilitation of a Fuller Center house before they travel on towards the finish line of the near 1300 mile trek.
The Fuller Center “biker gang” stopped by this Monday for their lunch break as well as a chat about fair trade and fundraising for a cause. They are in Americus working on the rehabilitation of a Fuller Center house before they travel on towards the finish line of the near 1300 mile trek.
Mosaic tile tables in cafe - A “thank you” to local tile guru, Lewis Overholt, for his workshop on mosaic tile art that he shared a few Saturdays ago. Folks loved designing creative table tops with the hundreds, maybe thousands, of colored tile pieces and the finished works of art are a great addition to our cafe. The tables have received many a compliment since.
Tea class - Join Jim Foglio on Saturday, September 19th, from 9:00am-10:30am at the cafe as he presents a FREE tea workshop. The class will include a basic background on the history of tea, how to brew its different varieties, how to assess flavors, as well as suggestions for meal pairings. Everyone is invited.
Ribbon Cutting at Kennesaw State University Dining Facility - On August 6th, Tripp traveled up to Kennesaw State University in Atlanta where he participated in the ribbon cutting for the university’s new state-of-the-art sustainable dining hall. As part of their continuing move toward sustainable practices, KSU will serve Café Campesino coffee in this impressive new facility that now serves the more than 22,000 students of our state’s 3rd largest university. Stay tuned for more on this new partnership in the September issue of Fair Grounds.
Barista 101 at the University of Florida - August 12th-13th – To kick off our onsite Cafe training program, Café Campesino and Sweetwater Organic Coffee are teaming up to train baristas at the “Fresh Food Company” dining facility at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Amanda Adkins from Sweetwater will be heading over to the college to teach these up-and-coming baristas how to prepare the best cup of coffee, shot of espresso, and specialty drink. The training program is being prepared by our own head barista, Joe Johnston. He is taking the Café Campesino Coffee House mojo and developing systems to transfer this knowledge to any barista who has the desire to sling a swinging cup of Café Campesino or Sweetwater coffee. Soon this program will be available for any Café Campesino or Sweetwater wholesale customer to take advantage of!
CRS Training in Nicaragua - September 6th-12th – Another one of Bill and Tripp’s excellent adventures. This time they head to Nicaragua to participate in training sessions as part of the Catholic Relief Services project, CAFE Livelihoods, that we’ve told you about in recent months. As part of the delegation, they’ll share their business acumen with producer partners in efforts to strengthen relationships and business successes. More to come as this educational project (for us and them) continues to unfold…
RAGBRAI - Little Farm Fair Trade once again took Café Campesino’s coffee to RAGBRAI 2009. The annual bike ride draws 10-15,000 riders each year and chooses a route across Iowa. Herb and Geoffrey brewed up over 500 gallons of coffee while Kristin and Jeh (who also helped out on BRAG this year) served it up in about 3,700 cups. There was live music, and many great discussions about fair trade. To read more about their adventures, visit littlefarm.org.