Global Coffee Café Contributes Resources to Students Learning from Home
Global Coffee Café partners with Fair
Trade USA nonprofit organization and the El Paso Independent School District on
an essay contest to inspire and help provide supplies to local students
learning remotely during the pandemic.
This year’s Back-to-School season has been challenging as parents, teachers, and students have all turned to teaching and learning remotely during a global pandemic. During these times of uncertainty remote learning has been no easy feat with the lack of resources and supplies for many students. To show their commitment to safe and sustainable farming practices and to make a difference in its local community by supporting the efforts of remote learning, the Global Coffee Café has partnered with the Fair Trade USA nonprofit organization, and the El Paso Independent School District in an essay contest for junior high and high school students challenging them to define the mission of fair trade.
The essay question asked, “What is fair trade and why is it important in our community?” Judges Robert Moreno (President & CEO of Global Coffee Café), Liz Escobar (General Manager of Global Coffee Café), Anna Banks (Chief Marketing Officer of Fair Trade USA), and James Smith (President of the El Paso Independent School District Board) scored the essays based on the understanding of the topic, effectiveness in presenting a point-of-view and addressing the question, literary style, grammar, and spelling as well as creativity in the content selection and presentation. The five talented essay contest winners are:
• Eleanor Clairmont (El Paso High School, Grade 11
• Manuel Silva (Hornedo Junior High, Grade 7)
• Darien Cavalos (Mary Tippen Middle School, Grade 8)
• Adriana Aragon (Ysleta High School, Grade 12)
• Helen Baylor (Coronado High School, Grade 10)
The El Paso community is important to Global Coffee Café as it is home to their corporate headquarters and first retail café. Education has been challenged throughout the El Paso community as students, parents, and teachers, have struggled to transition to a remote learning environment. Many students are without access to the internet and some do not have a computer or basic school supplies to assist in learning. This has increased the challenges of remote learning and has placed many students at an unfair education disadvantage. Many students are failing because of the lack of resources and many continue to struggle with the difficulties of remote learning. One of those difficulties is technology, access to the internet and the lack of learning supplies such as laptops, tablets, journals, and paper supplies. Students from the El Paso Independent School District were invited to submit a 300–500 word essay from August 20 through September 19, 2020 for a chance to win a Mac laptop, a Sony tablet, installation of Xfinity wifi and one year of free service and a $50 school supplies gift card. The five winning students will be able to use the technology, supplies and gift cards to improve their remote learning experiences.
“The support of this community helped us launch our idea on paper to the corner cafés across the continent that we are today. We want to show our appreciation by educating and giving back to the students within our community. Fair and ethical farming practices have always been our priority and having the opportunity to make students in our community aware of the importance of fair trade will benefit the future agriculture endeavors of tomorrow,” said Robert Moreno, President & CEO, Global Coffee Café. Moreno also said, “We desire to give back by enhancing the learning experience of students within our community and ease the education burdens of this difficult school year. It is a difficult time for learning as students adjust to the effects of COVID-19. Now, more than ever, it’s refreshing to read the thoughts and ideas of these students as they write so passionately about what fair trade means to them. There is so much that they can accomplish if they have the necessary resources.”
GLOBAL COFEE CAFÉ WANTS TO REAFFIRM ITS COMMITMENT TO FAIR TRADE AND ETHICAL PRACTICES IN THE COFFEE BEAN INDUSTRY by assuring customers that moving forward, all beans used in every retail café will be directly purchased from farmers through fair trade. Global Coffee Café places great value in ethical business practices and ensuring the best quality, taste, and value available. Global Coffee Café is committed to serving the most flavorful and aromatic coffee and stands by its pledge of each cup being a tasteful experience.
Farmers throughout the agriculture industry have been negatively impacted during these difficult times as many face unemployment without the proper resources to support their families. Since the start of the pandemic, Fair Trade USA has taken measures to “ensure farmers and their workers have access to the latest COVID-19 health and safety information in multiple languages, as well as help the farmers find resources for tests and PPE.” Fair Trade Committees have taken rapid action to support farmers in the coffee industry.
According to the Fair Trade website, “The nature of the coffee industry leaves coffee farmers especially vulnerable to income and food insecurity should a harvest not go as planned. This is currently a significant risk because labor shortages in most coffee-growing regions have resulted in delayed and reduced harvests as farmers have not been able to pick all of their coffee.”
"I would rather lose my entire crop and keep the health of my family." – Anonymous coffee farmer, Colombia
