Aid by the Cupful

Coffee Relief Funds’ efforts have helped the affected coffee growers dig out from the mud slides and floods, purchase new equipment, and process what harvestable coffee remained. Working with already established co-ops with a grassroots presence helped make the process incredibly efficient.

“These are people already there, already organized, they already have systems in place and so we were able to use the co-op’s infrastructure to detect the needs and to respond rapidly, and I’d say most importantly respond in a cost-effective manner,” says Shaun Paul, executive director of EcoLogic’s development fund and co-founder of the organization. “We were building off these very sophisticated local organizations and really supporting them and addressing the needs among their members in their back yard.”