The Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) helped raise $9,400 for Coffee Kids Grow It Forward campaign. The SCAE has taken on a Strategic Partnership with Coffee Kids and agreed to give €1 to food security projects for each Diploma System inscription. The SCAE Coffee Diploma is a controlled and certified system with a curriculum written and updated by the best minds in the coffee industry. The SCAE announced in early November that the number of diplomas recently undertaken stood at an impressive 7,000 certificates across the SCAE's five disciplines. This has helped Coffee Kids reach its goal of raising $30,000 for its ‘Grow it Forward’ campaign to help coffee-farming families throughout Latin America. The money raised will go towards contributing to projects that secure long-term food security for coffee-farming families.
“We in consuming countries are often unaware of the problems and challenges facing our colleagues in producing countries,” SCAE Executive Director David Veal said in a statement. “So we feel it is really important not only to support this campaign thoroughly, but also to help raise awareness of this issue.” “This year’s contribution to GROW from SCAE really put us over the top – we wouldn’t have achieved our goal without their support,” said Coffee Kids Development Director, Elisa Kelly. “We love having SCAE as a strategic partner, and their work on behalf of coffee farming families by working with Coffee Kids completes the coffee circle in a really meaningful way. We are looking forward to further collaboration in 2014 and look forward to keeping members posted about the impact that SCAE’s support helps us achieve.”
Coffee Kids projects help establish family gardens, worm-composting sites and provide nutritional workshops help families ensure an adequate supply of fresh, local food, minimizing the impact of rising global food prices and the lack of income during this time of year.
