Guatemala coffee…for a great cause

If you’re in Toronto and love a great cup of coffee, then it’s worth ordering authentic Guatemalan coffee from my pal, Ken McGuffin who, in addition to his mega media relations job at the Rotman School of Management has also managed to build a school in the highlands of Guatemala. You can read about his school-building activities in his Guatemala School Project blog or follow him on Twitter @schoolproject.

Mayan girl near Coban

About the coffee. It’s $10 for a 300 g bag and comes in a medium roast or a dark roast and in beans or ground. Café Justicia is Fair Trade, shade-grown, organic coffee produced on the volcanic slopes surrounding Lake  Atiltán in the Guatemalan highlands. The coffee is produced by members of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA),  an organization founded in 1982 and mandated to peacefully defend the rights of workers on large coffee, sugar and cotton plantations in Guatemala; recover lands stolen from the Mayan communities over the past century; promote organic and traditional Mayan agriculture, and protect the cultural rights of Guatemala’s Mayan majority.

A coffee cooperative near La Campa, Honduras

A few years ago, I completed a month-long community development assignment with the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) in La Campa, Honduras (3 bone-rattling hours from Copan) and saw first-hand what an amazing difference even a little international support can mean to a community. If you’re travelling to Honduras, check out the Visit La Campa tourism project page and plan a visit to the coffee plantation, go horseback riding or make some Lenca pottery.

Ken also sells weavings fromAsociación Maya de Desarrollo in Solola, Guatemala. Catch up with him at:

7^th Annual Fair Trade Holiday Sale for Guatemala

Thursday, December 8, 2011
10am to 7:00 pm

Fleck Atrium (Ground Floor)
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto

105 St. George Street
(south of Bloor, across from Innis College)