We are more than coffee!
New Hope Coffee is grown by the farmers of the El Porvenir Cooperative located in León, Nicaragua. The certified organically grown, bird-friendly, arabica beans are harvested, patio-sun dried, and hand-selected by the farmers. The green beans are roasted to order by 19 Coffee Company, a specialty micro-roaster in Pittsburgh, PA. The coffee has a smooth body, low acidity, with chocolate, tropical fruit, and earthy notes.
The BNH-El Porvenir Partnership Strives to Surpass Fair Trade Standards by:
Sustaining a long-term relationship
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BNH has purchased coffee from El Porvenir since 2002.
Transparent, Fair Prices
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BNH consistently pays El Porvenir a price (around $2.75/pound of green coffee) well above the official Fair Trade minimum.
Pre-payments
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BNH strives to pay 75 percent of the total price to El Porvenir prior to delivery.
Putting People before Profits
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BNH provides El Porvenir with grants for secondary education, university scholarships, and emergency needs.
Our Impact
El Porvenir farmers have replanted dozens of hectares of organic
shade-grown coffee
The community has
built and staffed a primary school
Sent first generation of students on to high school and university
Most importantly, the farmers have been able to keep their worker-owned cooperative and their future intact
Preserved 2000 acres of native tropical dryland forest, providing critical habitat for migrating birds and other species as well as keeping the watershed and land clean from pesticides and herbicides
From Coop to Your Cup
Coffee is a big deal. First domesticated in the highlands of Ethiopia, coffee production and consumption now touches almost the entire world. For more than two centuries, most coffee has been grown and exported from Latin America, building nations and even brewing revolutions. Coffee is big business: it is one of the most valuable internationally traded commodities. Coffee is also a livelihood for millions of small-scale farmers including the families of the El Porvenir Cooperative.
Who's Involved?
Farmers: El Porvenir is a cooperative of families that grow and harvest the coffee near Leon, Nicaragua
Roasters: 19 Coffee, located in Pittsburgh, PA roasts El Porvenir beans
Retail Partners & Local Volunteers: Our Pittsburgh team, with the help of volunteers packs, distributes, and serves El Porvenir coffee
You: There’s no supply without demand! You make this process possible
Nicaraguan local coffee farmers from a worker-own coffee cooperative partnering with Building New Hope are planting organic arabica coffee beans in the field.
El Porvenir's coffee farmers are harvesting arabica coffee beans.
Coffee cherries that are shade-grown and bird-friendly from El Porvenir, a Nicaraguan community.
Nicaraguan local coffee farmers from a worker-own coffee cooperative partnering with Building New Hope are planting organic arabica coffee beans in the field.
The Land & People
of El Porvenir
Coffee begins with the people who cultivate and harvest it! The El Porvenir Cooperative is nestled on the side of a verdant, biologically diverse, mountain outside of León, Nicaragua. The community of some three hundred people collectively owns the land on which they farm and live. The beautiful setting belies the hardships that the farmers continue to face: vital infrastructure for providing easy access to potable water, electricity, the internet, and transportation are inadequate. The community owns a single vehicle —an old tractor— that not only brings members of the community up the mountain, but also is sometimes used to carry coffee beans and other farm products down the mountain. El Porvenir includes families who fought on opposing sides during the 1979 Revolution, but who came together to form ecologically sustainable livelihoods. By growing organic coffee, the farmers earn higher prices and protect themselves, their neighbors, and the surrounding environment from hazardous agrochemicals while promoting biodiversity. The challenge for BNH and coffee drinkers is to ensure that the El Porvenir farmers can gain access to vital infrastructure.
Process
Planted in volcanic soils with organic fertilizers made on-site
Coffee plants grow under the shade of plantains and a variety of trees
The co-op families harvest, process, and hand-select the coffee “beans”
The coffee travels to a port where it awaits shipment to the U.S.
Beans are
roasted fresh in Pittsburgh, PA by 19 Coffee