Wilson Lee
Salmaan Kapdi
Christina Melendez
St. John's University
Charles Wankel
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Coffee For Peace hits many solutions for the UN's SDGs. Most of it can be condensed into three points: Environmetal, Developmental, and easing Inequality.
They provide many different solutions to the problem of inequality. They achieve gender equality while also empowering the females in the community by having 80 percent of all farming partners of CFP being women. They also educate local and national partners about inclusive development as one of their basis for long-term partnerships. By doing that, they reduce inequality within and among countries. To promote peaceful and all inclusive societies, their trading partners, are organized into Peace and Reconciliation Communities (PAR) where they are taught the fundamentals of peace building and mediation.
CFP develops their suppliers through educational programs. They train them to be suppliers of raw materials, how to market their products, and teach them the various processes of the product. The PAR as said before are trained in mediation skills, conflict transformation, and negotiating.
Their founder grew up learning about the hate between the Christians and the Muslims in the Philippines. He decided to travel there and figure out the reason behind the conflict. Tala, our interviewee described the interaction like this: " Are you here to convert me?" said the leader of the Muslim group. "Shouldn't I be scared that you're going to convert me?" asked the founder, "There are a thousand of you and only one of me." After this interaction he was able to live with them for 6 months to understand the conflicting point of views.
Afterwards, he sat the two opposing leaders down with some coffee and had them talk to one another. What resulted was a resolution between the two, and the armed-conflict drew to a close. From that arose CFP, the company that promotes harmony and peace through coffee.
Coffee for Peace promotes the development of peace, equality, justice, and enhancement of the environment. This business has incorporated all these components through selling coffee. Coffee for Peace has given both Christian settlers and Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines a chance to earn money by growing coffee beans.
One main goal of Coffee for Peace is ending poverty everywhere and in all forms. They contribute to solving this problem by paying each working farmer $8.75 a day. Coffee for Peace also supports equality and the empowerment of women. About 80 percent of their farming partners are women. Another main focus of Coffee for Peace is sustainment of the environment. Some contributions they provide are the preservation of forests and also the planting of trees. In addition, CFP also works to reduce soil erosion that is occurring on the mountains.
Coffee for Peace is able to provide Christian settlers and Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines a salary while still running a business. In addition, Coffee for Peace investors has complied with donating 25% of their net profit to the Peace Builders Community, Inc. This money allows the PAR Teams grow and provides training to those seeking to be agents of peace and reconciliation in their communities.
A main focus for Coffee for Peace is diminishing inequalities through out and amidst different countries. In hopes to reduce this they partner with international buyers and distributors like Level Ground Trading. Along with these partnerships comes an invitation to pay a visit to the farming communities located in the Philippines.
The beans that CFP produces require big trees as shade. As such, they maintain and protect the forests and mountains in where they operate. This protection helps the environment and their water shed in their areas. Their growing program for these trees mitigate soil erosion on the mountains.
They also teach their suppliers, the indigenous farmers, how to become successful entrepreneurs of their own. They train their partners in disaster relief and conflict resolution. They spread their knowledge to whoever they can in order to inspire others to take action.
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Tala Bautista, Chief Operating Officer
Coffee for Peace is in the Food and Beverage industry. They focus predominantly on coffee and serve anyone that comes through. They obtain their beans locally through indigenous farmers whom they teach and develop to become better at their craft.