Bill Fishbein is hosting a reception to help spread the word about the efforts of The Coffee Trust at the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) Conference in Seattle, on 10 April. The Coffee Trust is a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), which works with small-scale coffee farmers in one of the poorest regions at origin, the Ixil region of Guatemala. The Coffee Trust supports economic diversification, food sovereignty, health care, education and Roya recovery through a farmer-to-farmer, shared learning principle. Fishbein founded Coffee Kids in 1988 and went on to create The Coffee Trust seven years ago. “As the original founder of Coffee Kids, I am saddened more than most to hear of the challenges facing the organisation today,” said Fishbein, in a statement. “I am proud to have conceived it, and prouder to have shepherded it for the first twenty years.” Fishbein said Coffee Kids carved out a path for numerous NGOs to do similar work at origin. “Coffee Kids was the first non-profit to peel back the denial around poverty in the coffee trade,” said Fishbein, in the statement. “In 1988, Coffee Kids awakened an industry that had been asleep for centuries, and for the next 27 years Coffee Kids helped thousands of coffee producers and their families improve the quality of their lives.”
In Fishbein’s statement he thanked the industry on behalf of small-scale coffee farmers and asked for support in keeping the spirit of Coffee Kids alive through The Coffee Trust. The Coffee Trust reception is being held from 5:30pm – 8:30pm, in room number 605 at the Washington State Convention Center.