HOPE Coffee’s online store provides a smooth check out process, and the highest level of security. Follow these directions to ensure that you are correctly logged in, and receiving your HOPE Partner Discount!

Not a HOPE Partner? Find out how you can receive a discount on every order placed at HOPECoffee.com!

1. From any location in our online store, locate the “My Account” button at the top of the section.
2. You will see a screen asking for your email address. When you enter your email, you will be sent an email with a link to sign-in.
3. In the email, you will see a green button that will direct you back to our online store.
4. Once you have added items to your cart, you will be able to see your discount applied in the summary on the left.
5. You will be able to enter your shipping address and preferred method of shipping, as well as payment information.
    
    

If at any point you encounter difficulties, please do not hesitate to reach out to us by calling 972-598-9110, or emailing us at support@hopecoffee.com.

Thank you for partnering with us to Change Lives!

HOPE Coffee’s latest impact…

These stories are a direct result of choosing to drink HOPE Coffee!

Building Trust in an Unbelieving Community

April 1, 2024

Child Nutrition in Rwanda

February 29, 2024

Six New Believers in Honduras

February 1, 2024

2024 Impact Report

January 3, 2024

Get Started with HOPE Coffee

Change Lives with HOPE Coffee wherever you are!

Home Subscriptions

Churches

Coffee Shops

Questions? Contact us!

One whiteboard. Two desks. Three Countries. Hundreds of partners. Thousands of families. Millions of coffee beans.  

10 Years.

The Old Testament has many references to the word Shiloh. Perhaps the most common refers to the land God provided to the Israelites where the Ark of the Covenant – God’s very presence – could dwell among them.  Many believe that Shiloh can be referred to as “A Place of Peace.”  

It has been 10 full years since HOPE Coffee began with a brainstorming session on a whiteboard in Siguatepeque, Honduras.  While not every year has been easy, God has carried us through them all.  For several years now, we have known we would need to move our offices. We’ve been asking God for years to direct us and provide for us. It should have been no surprise that He did indeed provide. The name of the street where God led us? Shiloh Road. 

HOPE Coffee’s ministry has never been stronger than it is today.  We have grown to three countries each with their own richly-flavored coffee beans, life-changing ministry and National Ministry Leader.  This year we want to celebrate all that God has done for the past 10 years with a brand new coffee: Shiloh Roast.

Shiloh is a celebration of the renewed peace that He has given to us this year, and of 10 years of ministry to families throughout Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala.  Each of the mountains you see on the label represents one of these countries.  This is where the coffee beans were grown, and where seeds of ministry were sown.  Each location is a vital part of the flavor of this roast, just as each is a vital part of our ministry.

We hope that as you sip this new, delicious coffee you will reflect not only on the peace God has provided to HOPE Coffee and the families we minister to, but also the peace He provides you in your life, your families and your ministries through your trust in Jesus Christ – God’s son!

Shop Shiloh Roast

HOPE Coffee’s latest impact…

These stories are a direct result of choosing to drink HOPE Coffee!

Building Trust in an Unbelieving Community

April 1, 2024

Child Nutrition in Rwanda

February 29, 2024

Six New Believers in Honduras

February 1, 2024

2024 Impact Report

January 3, 2024

Get Started with HOPE Coffee

Change Lives with HOPE Coffee wherever you are!

Home Subscriptions

Churches

Coffee Shops

Questions? Contact us!

Serve a no-contact cup of coffee.

Have a volunteer wearing a mask and gloves stand behind a table or your coffee bar to serve the coffee.  Place the coffee dispenser so that it is facing the volunteer, discouraging self-serve, allowing them to quickly fill a new disposable cup with HOPE Coffee.  Place the cup on the counter and allow the church member to pick it up at their convenience.  Do not hand the cup to the person directly.

Be sure to use a new cup each time instead of refilling disposable cups, and do not fill cups that people have brought from home.  The volunteer should not handle anything that someone has already used.

Serve no-contact condiments.

Have a second volunteer ready to dispense single-serve creamers and sweetener packets as requested by placing the creamers and sweeteners on a counter and allowing the church member to pick it up at their convenience. Do not serve creamers and sweeteners in the self-serve style or hand the packets to people directly.

Consider having a separate table with a trash can nearby where people can add the creamers and sweeteners to their HOPE Coffee without causing a social distancing issue or backing up the line for condiments.

Serve with space.

Place the coffee and creamer stations at least 8 feet apart to maintain social distancing guidelines and for faster service.  Consider adding spacing guidelines on the floor to maintain social distancing while people wait in line for coffee and/or creamers.  Feel free to download the HOPE Coffee Social Distancing Placards and place them 6 feet apart on your floor as an encouraging way to serve better.

Serve with cleanliness.

Place hand sanitizer stations for people to use before and after consuming their coffee. If your church isn’t ready to begin serving coffee again, consider purchasing smaller coffee packages that your church members can brew at home, like the HOPE Coffee Single Serve Cups for Keurig or 2.5 oz. packets!

Download a printable version of these guidelines to share with a friend or post in your coffee area!

We recommend these additional resources regarding reopening your physical church location:

Vanderbloemen – Reopening Church Locations

Malphurs Group – Three Church Insights from Covid 19 Studies

HOPE Coffee’s latest impact…

These stories are a direct result of choosing to drink HOPE Coffee!

Building Trust in an Unbelieving Community

April 1, 2024

Child Nutrition in Rwanda

February 29, 2024

Six New Believers in Honduras

February 1, 2024

2024 Impact Report

January 3, 2024

Get Started with HOPE Coffee

Change Lives with HOPE Coffee wherever you are!

Home Subscriptions

Churches

Coffee Shops

Questions? Contact us!

Coffee and Jesus: Resources for Study or Sermons

At HOPE Coffee, we love Jesus and we love coffee.  When we see those two blend together we naturally get a little excited!  When we recently found sermons and study materials teaching scripture with examples and insight relating to coffee we were thrilled!  We thought you might enjoy them, as well.

• Pastor Matt Russel of Lighthouse 805 in Ventura, California just wrapped up a sermon series titled “Brew.”  In this series, Matt compares the life of a coffee bean to the life of a Christian.  From harvest to brew, the life of the coffee bean is used an example of our life of service as the body of Christ.  We think you’ll enjoy listening to this fun series!  (You’ll find the series by scrolling down through the recent podcasts.) 

• We particularly enjoy this piece written by Scott Ball titled Say No to Bad Coffee – A Theology of Hospitality.  Scott makes his case for serving quality coffee to your guests every week, and we couldn’t agree more!

• If you’re in the mood for some in-depth satirical theology, give Michael J. Svigel’s piece, Coffee As A Means of Grace: Theological Humor a read.  Although we recommend diving in to this one after your first cup!

Do you have a unique sermon or written piece celebrating coffee and Jesus?  We’d love to see it!  Email us at servebetter@hopecoffee.com and we may add it to this list!

HOPE Coffee’s latest impact…

These stories are a direct result of choosing to drink HOPE Coffee!

Building Trust in an Unbelieving Community

April 1, 2024

Child Nutrition in Rwanda

February 29, 2024

Six New Believers in Honduras

February 1, 2024

2024 Impact Report

January 3, 2024

Get Started with HOPE Coffee

Change Lives with HOPE Coffee wherever you are!

Home Subscriptions

Churches

Coffee Shops

Questions? Contact us!

What is the Difference Between Fair Trade and Direct Trade Coffee and Why Does it Matter?

It is no secret that the coffee industry has not been kind to coffee growers. In fact, in Central America many coffee growers do not earn a livable wage. Coffee pickers there often earn less than half of the national minimum wage for their country. Coffee is a $5.18 billion industry in the United States alone, so why do most coffee farmers live in poverty?

Over the past several years, “Fair Trade Coffee” has become an increasingly popular trend. After all, as a consumer it is a great feeling to know that the farmers that grew your coffee are receiving fair compensation for their hard work. Buying fair trade coffee seems to be an easy way to ensure that you are using your spending power to empower and not to exploit. However, now that the concept of “Direct Trade Coffee” is increasing in popularity, new questions have emerged:

• Why is the business of coffee so unfair to the coffee grower?
• What does Fair Trade Coffee really mean?
• How is Direct Trade Coffee different?
• What makes HOPE Coffee different?

Why is the business of coffee so unfair to the coffee grower?

Even while living in a land rich with resources, most coffee farmers and pickers live in poverty. Every year at harvest time the coffee farmer will hire pickers to come gather the coffee cherries from the trees. The farmer must pay the pickers before he discovers what he will earn from the year’s crop, and long before he actually receives the payment for his beans. Unfortunately, most farmers do not have the ability to pay these wages from their own savings. Often, this means taking loans from local banks with extremely unfavorable interest rates.

After the picking is complete, the beans are ready to be transported to the processing facility. At this point, farmers have at least three choices when selling their coffee beans:

1. They can sell them to groups commonly referred to as “coyotes.” These are local middlemen who pay the farmer a fraction of the local value of the beans, pick up the beans at the farm, transport them to the processing facility, and sell the beans on the local market.This option provides the farmer with immediate money for his coffee, but the farmer will receive much less than the full international market price he would receive if he were to transport the beans himself.

   

2. Sometimes the farmer is able to get a partial or full payment of the international market price upfront. However, they are still responsible for the costs to process the coffee, and at times additional fees to the co-op, as well.
3. They can deliver their beans in person to a local processing facility and wait for an international buyer. Most coffee buyers in the United States contact coffee processing facilities when they have need for coffee. They describe the type, quality and quantity of coffee they would like. Eventually, the facility will match the buyer to a farmer’s particular quality of coffee.

While the farmer will receive the international market price (which is typically lower than the established “Fair Trade” price) they must wait to receive payment for the coffee beans until the buyer actually pays for the coffee. This can take weeks or even months. Because the farmer is responsible for the cost of the coffee processing long before they will receive payment, this may mean additional loans. In some cases, the cost of processing could be deducted from the farmers future payment once the coffee is sold.

Once the beans arrive at the processing facility, they are weighed, depulped, dried, sorted, cupped (tasted), rated according to quality, processed and packaged for export.

This entire process is often a gamble. There are many factors including weather, disease, bean quality, processing costs, current market rates for coffee, interest rates and time spent waiting that can easily wipe out any and all potential profit, no matter which of the above options the farmer chooses.

What is Fair Trade Coffee?

The concept of Fair Trade Coffee is perhaps the most widely-recognized response to this harsh reality. Fair Trade USA, who is overseen by FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International), dictates Fair Trade Coffee standards in the United States. The goal is to enable coffee growers to earn a guaranteed price per pound from their buyers. Further, the buyer pays an additional $.10 per pound to fund community and business development projects. These projects are intended to improve education, sanitation and even healthcare in these impoverished nations.

The concept itself is undoubtedly admirable. Not only will the coffee farmers receive a fair price per bean, but their local communities will also see improvements. However, there are numerous obstacles the grower must navigate in order to be eligible for a fair trade program. For example, FLO limits participation in the program to only very small farms. Furthermore, those farms cannot operate independently as FLO requires farms to be part of an established co-op with other small coffee farms. The result is a host of coffee farmers who will never be considered for a fair trade coffee program, regardless of their other qualifications. This includes independently operated farms, and those who have inherited a larger farm. The requirement could actually even discourage a farmer from successfully expanding his farm!

FLO also requires a substantial fee upon acceptance into the program—a fee most coffee farmers cannot afford. On top of this, in order to keep these fair trade coffee prices high, FLO limits the number of participating farms. This means that even if a coffee grower meets all of the conditions and can pay the entry fee, they are still unlikely to be able to sell their beans as part of a fair trade program.

Even acceptance into the fair trade program may not guarantee that the farmer will receive the full guaranteed price per pound. Because the guaranteed rate is paid to the co-op, the rate may or may not be passed along to the actual coffee grower. In many cases there are no price guarantees whatsoever to the individual grower, nor wage guarantees to workers. Many times the workers will still receive less than local minimum wage standards, even while employed by a fair trade farm. In most fair trade cases, the coffee buyer has no knowledge of the farmers or pickers who grew their coffee, and no ongoing relationship with them.

While Fair Trade USA and FLO have been very successful in turning the world’s attention to the plight of coffee growers, the program has been largely unsuccessful in significantly reducing poverty among coffee growers. To learn more consider reading The Taste of Many Mountains by Bruce Wydick.

What is Direct Trade Coffee?

While the concept of “Fair Trade Coffee” has evolved into an organizational system of regulations, the newer concept of “Direct Trade Coffee” simply describes the relationship between the farmer and the buyer. The third party regulatory committee is removed completely. In a direct trade relationship, the coffee buyer literally has a direct relationship with the coffee farmer. Instead of purchasing coffee beans through the fair trade regulators or a coffee processing facility, coffee companies purchase beans directly from the farmers.

The first obvious benefit of the direct trade model is the tremendous cost savings of the fees associated with the third party. By purchasing directly from the farmer, the cut for a coyote, the reselling fees of the processing facility, and the cost associated with fair trade certification can all be added back into the potential profit for the coffee grower. As a result, the farmer can actually make a higher profit without the help of these third party regulators.

The direct trade coffee model also empowers the farmer, who for so long has been powerless in the coffee industry. Suddenly, they are able to communicate directly with the buyer of their coffee, and proudly represent their own product. No longer at the mercy of the coyote, or waiting in anticipation for someone to select their particular grade of coffee from the processing facility, they now have the security of knowing that they will earn a profit from their year of hard work. They will be able to pay their workers. Further, they will not be burdened with crushing loans from their local bank.

Because there is no formal “Direct Trade Coffee” certification process, it can be difficult to determine whether a coffee company is actually participating in a direct trade relationship with its farmers. When choosing a direct trade coffee look for companies that know the names of their farmers and exactly where their coffee comes from. Look for a coffee company that is proud to share photos and information about their farms and farmers with their customers.

What Makes HOPE Coffee Different?

HOPE Coffee first began as a ministry of purchasing coffee directly from local coffee farmers and then selling their beans to fund service projects for families in need in their communities. All these years later, we still take our responsibility to the farmer very seriously, and our end goal is still to serve people in need in their countries.

We know these farmers personally and have ongoing relationships with them. By purchasing coffee directly from them at a consistent, above Fair Trade prices, our farmers have the security they need to expand their farms and hire the picking help they need. Additionally, HOPE Coffee pays for a portion of the beans up front. This allows the farmer to have the option to pay his pickers without securing a high-interest loan from a local bank. HOPE Coffee also pays for the in-country processing of the beans, once again relieving the farmer of this added cost. These additional steps are almost unheard of in the coffee industry.

This direct relationship allows HOPE Coffee to be able to share with our customers the source of their morning cup of coffee. They see the faces and read the names of the people who are the first to profit from their purchase. It is through this direct relationship that HOPE Coffee is able to minister to our farmers and their pickers as needs arise. One of our favorite parts of this relationship is when one of the farmers or pickers chooses to trust in Jesus!

Read more about one way HOPE Coffee is A Coffee That Serves Its Farmers.

HOPE Coffee’s farmers understand the impact that their beans can have in their own communities, because they see it in person. We invest the profits from the sale of their coffee into homes for widows and children in their community, new roofs for families, water storage systems and even clean water filters. All of these projects are facilitated by local churches in these communities, who are able to continue ministering to those in need. Our farmers are proud to be a part of what God is doing through HOPE Coffee!

Meet Rodimiro and the rest of the Direct Trade farmers that grow HOPE Coffee!

Get Started with HOPE Coffee

Change Lives with HOPE Coffee wherever you are!

Home Subscriptions

Churches

Coffee Shops

Questions? Contact us!