Who We Are
Our Mission
We partner with coffee-farming communities to cultivate a food-secure future.
Our Vision
A world where every coffee-farming family has enough nutritious food every day.
Our Story
In 2007, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters commissioned a research team from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to identify challenges faced by small-holder coffee farmers in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico. The team, which included our co-founder Rick Peyser, conducted one-on-one interviews with hundreds of coffee farmers and their families. Their research revealed that “even producers who receive fair trade premiums suffer a period of food insecurity ranging from one to seven months of the year – every year.”
Of the farmers interviewed, 67 percent experienced 3-8 months of extreme food scarcity each year. Families often refer to this period as “los meses flacos,” or the “Thin Months” of hunger. Causes include a combination of low coffee prices, dependence on a single crop for income, limited access to finance, and lack of opportunity to make substantive changes, resulting in a poverty trap for millions of families. In 2011, we came together to strategize about how we could help coffee-growing communities overcome food insecurity and build sustainable livelihoods. From these conversations came Food 4 Farmers, an NGO focused on helping coffee-growing families improve income, nutrition, and ecosystem health.
The Food 4 Farmers Team
Our team of staff, board members, and advisors brings expertise in agroecology, international development, public health, and coffee supply chains to support sustainable futures for coffee-farming communities.