Meet The Direct Trade Farmers Who Grow HOPE Coffee

We’d like you to meet some of the Direct Trade Coffee Farmers behind HOPE Coffee.

HOPE Coffee exists to share the love of Jesus in everything that we do. You already know that your purchase provides clean water and safe homes for families in need. You know that these projects are led by local Honduran and Mexican churches who want to serve their communities. You also know that we love partnering with our customers, not only by providing quality coffee, but also by displaying to their members, families and customers one way they can support world missions in their daily lives.

But did you know that HOPE Coffee is serving others before the coffee bean is even ripe? We purchase our coffee beans through a Direct Trade relationship with farmers in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, consistently paying above the established Fair Trade rate. We have strong, ongoing relationships that extend well beyond coffee. Because of these relationships, we have opportunities to share the love of Jesus with their coffee pickers as well!

With that in mind, we’d like you to meet the farmers who grow your HOPE Coffee!

Meet Armando and Norma.

The Leiva family are fourth generation coffee growers. They know the land and the people of Guatemala, and it is their mission to be more than coffee. Their passion is to improve the lives of the people in their community, specifically the families who work in the coffee farms. They have witnessed the cycle of poverty carry through multiple generations of coffee workers, and they believe that education is the key to breaking that cycle. That is why in 2013 they helped to start Lan Vwa school in Joconal, Guatemala. Led by Armando and Norma’s daughter Karina, Lan Vwa is providing education and new opportunities to the children of coffee workers in their region. This type of education has never been available to these families, and it is changing the lives of the children in their community!

The Leiva family grows our Guatemalan Light and Guatemalan Medium roast coffee. When you purchase HOPE Coffee, you are not only supporting these incredible coffee growers, but also helping to fund Lan Vwa and break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala!

Meet Rodimiro.

Rodimiro lives in Siguatepeque, Honduras with his wife Carla Patricia. He has three children, Marcella, Josué and Celeste, and is a proud grandpa to one very special granddaughter who lives nearby. He and his wife are involved in Emmanuel Church where his wife is in charge of the women’s group and Rodimiro teaches the 11-12 year old boys class. Some Sundays you might even find him preaching!

Rodimiro grows much of our Honduran line of HOPE Coffee, including our Medium, Bold and Dark roasts. He is passionate about using his expertise in growing exceptional coffee to share the love of Jesus with people in his community. In fact, he and Carla Patricia both recently graduated from a seminary in Honduras, SEBCAH Institute, in order to learn how he can use his background in coffee to reach even more people for Christ. His goal to share his expertise with coffee growers in Africa, in hopes that they, too, can build meaningful relationships with their coffee pickers and buyers, all while funding much needed service projects for families in their own communities.

Meet E-Café.

Originally setup by the missionary organization Ichthus Missions Community, E-Cafe is a coffee growing and processing organization that is changing lives in Mexico. By working with small-scale coffee farmers to pay them fairly for their beans, and striving to improve the quality of life through education and social development projects, E-Cafe is improving the health and quality of life in Chiapas.

E-Cafe hires both Mexicans and Guatemalans to pick coffee on the coffee farms. Because the coffee picking season can be months long, the Guatemalan pickers will bring their whole families with them to the farms. This means that many kids would go without school for the entire picking season. In order to give back to these families, E-Cafe has built schools on the actual coffee farms so that the children of the coffee pickers can continue their education.

Every bag of our Mexican Light Roast Coffee supports these schools, and the missions efforts of E-Cafe and Icthus, not to mention projects funded by HOPE Coffee directly!