Modest Coffee’s Marcus and Jenni Contaldo, of Aurora, introduce their 2017 Special Collector a single-origin Guatemalan that is “super cool and amazing and ENTIRELY women produced,” a first for Modest Coffee, and rare to find from any roaster. Additionally, they thought “it would be awesome to give back to women,” so Modest Coffee will be giving 25% of each bag sale to Mutual Ground, an Aurora, IL domestic violence assistance center.
Just 15% of the world’s coffee is grown on women owned farms and only 13% of coffee is roasted by women. Without doing the exact math, those percentages combined make for a pretty small Venn diagram space of coffees that are grown by women AND roasted by women.
And when they say ENTIRELY produced by women, what they mean is that it is grown on women owned farms, harvested by women, processed by women, cupped by women, exported by women, graded by women, and imported by women, before it even gets to our warehouse. At their West Chicago warehouse, this coffee is roasted by Jenni, co-owner of Modest Coffee, and bagged and shipped by Maggie, one of their shining employees, and Jenni’s sister. Achieving this nine-fecta of literally every step of production done by women is an extremely rare feat, and one the roasters are super excited about.
Last, and maybe best, Modest Coffee has decided to donate 25% of the sale of each bag to Mutual Ground in Aurora, IL. Mutual Ground is one of the largest and oldest domestic violence and sexual assault service agencies in the state of Illinois, answering over 2,000 calls per year. “Giving back to a group that is largely comprised of women is the best end to this coffee’s legacy,” Marcus said.
They are also working on getting other businesses to pledge a donation to Mutual Ground for every bag that they sell. So far, every bag sold will bring in $8 to Mutual Ground. By the end of the campaign, they hope to have the entire purchase price of the 2017 Special Collector pledged to Mutual Ground. |