The Short Story
Makarios
buys coffee direct from a farming community in the Dominican Republic. Dominican Joe then buys the coffee from Makarios and serves it in our shop. So who all benefits?
- The farmers and their families because we buy according to fair trade practices and pay fair prices in order to help them improve their lives.
The kids at both Makarios and Doulos Discovery School because proceeds from the sale of the coffee go right back into their education.
Our customers who purchase our coffee because you’re not just getting a good cup o’ Joe. You’re also helping someone in poverty take a step out of that world and into something better.
The Detailed Version
About the Coffee
-
Café Makarios coffee (sold under the Dominican Joe label) is grown on a 350 acre ecological reserve located
high in the Central Mountain Range of the Dominican republic. The coffee is harvested using fair trade practices
and is certified organic, producing a very smooth, high quality, Caribbean brew with good body, a rich cocoa flavor,
and mid acidity. There are two types of coffee bean; Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is grown at a higher
elevation where greater varieties of nutrients in the soil produce a higher quality, better tasting bean, and
it’s the only type we sell at Dominican Joe. Robusta is more common and easier to grow but the quality and
flavor are not as good. The organic practices our farmers use integrate traditional farming and innovative
science to produce a coffee that benefits both farmers and consumers. These practices sustain the health of
the soil, the natural environment, and the community surrounding local farms. They improve farmers’ lives and
their land by eliminating the use of harmful chemicals, therefore improving the quality of coffee and
lengthening the life of the farms.
The Farmers
-
Most coffee farmers around the world live a life of poverty and illiteracy. Although Dominican farmers have
little access to education, they are often second or third generation growers who have extensive knowledge of
their crop. Most are in debt, have no savings, and cannot adequately provide for their families for roughly
half of the year. In the Dominican Republic, the majority of coffee farms are about the size of your backyard
and the farmers generally don’t have the title to their land, which means they can’t get loans to invest in or
improve their farms. Coffee is easily affected by weather patterns and pests, and although properly managing
their farms is very labor intensive, the farmers only receive a very small fraction of the profit. This is
where Makarios and Dominican Joe come in. We buy direct trade from the farmers at fair trade prices, effectively
cutting out all middlemen and ensuring that as much money as possible goes where it’s most needed – into
helping improve the lives of the farmers, their families, and the students who attend both schools.
The Kids
-
The sale of coffee here Dominican Joe directly pours into the education of students attending two different
schools in the Dominican Republic; Makarios and Doulos Discovery School. Some of these kids are the children
of Haitian sugar cane harvesters and the first in their families to have the opportunity to go to school. A
substantial portion of the gross income the local farmer receives from Dominican Joe helps pay the tuition of
a needy Haitian or Dominican student.
We hope, through this partnership, we are providing a product that you can feel good about. By drinking our
coffee, you help change the world for children, farmers, and whole communities living in poverty but hoping for
a way out.
