2022 Impact Report Propelling Stability

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IMPACT REPORT

DearDeLaGenteSupporters,

When producers spot the first ripened coffee cherries at the beginning of the harvest season, it’s always a moment of culminated anticipation, satisfaction, and hope. However, market volatility keeps these sentiments at bay as producers live with the reality that the value of their final processed beans may not fully offset the investment they poured into their fields to ensure a plentiful harvest. We set out to disrupt this market norm and promote relationship-based trade among a community of coffee customers who, too, are committed to justly compensating small-scale coffee producers.

After record high coffee prices in 2021, the global value of coffee plummeted in 2022, during a year when the world and producers alike, experienced extreme inflation. While the international market under-valued the individuals growing and processing coffee, De La Gente, along with our green coffee community, chose to rise above the industry. In 2022, we negotiated contracts between our eight partner cooperatives and wholesale green coffee customers, all of which paid well above market standards.

Because of the relationships that we have fostered between roasters and the communities from which they’re purchasing, these negotiations are much richer than agreeing on a number. Rather, they become conversations about fairness, dignity, and prosperity for Guatemalan coffee-growing families and communities.

While our bulk impact is generated through wholesale green coffee sales, the incorporation of additional programs allows us to truly elevate our mission. In 2022, whether you purchased wholesale green or roasted beans, visited us in Guatemala, made a donation, or brewed the De La Gente taste in your own home, you all played a role in one more year of making coffee-growing a fruitful, stable, and dignified livelihood.

Julio Martinez | Interim Executive Director

AboutDeLaGente

M I S S I O N

Creating economic opportunities for coffee producing communities.

V I S I O N

We envision a coffee industry that is equitable and inclusive, that enables small-scale farmers to earn a dignified income and live prosperous lives, that facilitates authentic relationships between coffee producers and buyers, and that prioritizes economic, social, and environmental needs of everyone involved.

AREAS OF WORK

COOPERATIVE ASSISTANCE

Building the capacity of our partner cooperatives to be successful farmer-run organizations

COFFEE COMMERCIALZATION

Improving market access for farmers while delivering a high quality product to consumers

COMMUNITY TOURISM

Facilitating authentic and mutually beneficial immersive experiences for visitors

AWARENESS RAISING

Cultivating a community of conscientious coffee consumers

Partner Cooperatives

Propellingstability

within our network of partner cooperatives

COFFEE GROW SAN MIGUEL E

LA FAMILIA COLLECTIVE

IJA'TZ COOPERA

SANTA ANITA COOPERATIVE

8 cooperatives

140 small-scale producers

+ coffee regions

SHIGUALOS COFFEE

4

THE UNION OF SMALL-SCALE PRODUCERS

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS OF SAN MIGUEL ESCOBAR

CooperativeAssistance

As part of our efforts to cultivate opportunities for smallscale coffee producers, we respond to their needs and aspirations by offering trainings, scholarships, and microloans to the members of our eight partner cooperatives.

TRAININGS

FIRST AID TRAINING CUSTOMER SERVICE

SOFT SKILL TRAINING RISK CONTROL

In 2022, we partnered with INTECAP (Vocational Training Institute) to implement a series of tourism and hospitality trainings with our partner cooperative, the Coffee Growers of San Miguel Escobar, with whom we carry out our Community Tourism Program. Because the producers themselves facilitate the tours and classes offered to visitors, it’s important that they feel confident and prepared to guide those experiences. The INTECAP training series included presentations, workshops, group discussions, and simulations allowing producers to more wholly understand the perspectives of tourists and be better equipped to lead mutually beneficial immersive experiences. 1 2 3 4 5

BEST TOUR-GUIDING PRACTICES

SCHOLARSHIPS

In efforts to nourish the entrepreneurial spirits of coffee producers and their goals to grow within the industry, we provided barista training scholarships to Rudy and Estela, members of our partner cooperative, La Familia Collective.

As we seek to include more women producers, we were honored to name Estela as a scholarship recipient, who is undoubtedly an example of the potential that women have as coffee professionals. She is not only a woman producer, but also the legal representative of La Familia Collective and barista in-training, proving that she can cultivate coffee, perform the art of preparing it, and negotiate the contracts the cooperative makes with green

Many people criticize us wo for being in the male-domi coffee industry… It’s not no see a woman in a barista contest, or a woman who cultivates, processes, and can even prepare your coffee. We’re always encountering sexism, but I’ve adopted the mentality to show them what I can do. With time, people will change their mentality.

EstelaGonzalez,LaFamiliaCollective

MICROLOANS

I N D I V I D U A L L O A N S

The Young Entrepreneur Fund was used in 2022 to provide 0% interest loans to 5 members of our partner cooperative, the Young Entrepreneurs of San Miguel Escobar. Loan recipients, all of whom are second generation coffee growers, used their loans towards projects and costs such as fertilizer, purchasing additional land, and covering production costs.

totaling

$6k

5 individual loans

Receiving the loan was incredibly positive for me… A lot of us have the initiative and will to work in this industry, but we don’t have the capital to really drive that work… [this loan] has helped me tremendously.

EstuardoAcajabón,Young EntrepreneursofSanMiguelEscobar

cooperative loans

$52k totaling

2 cooperative loans totaling

Beyond providing loans to individuals, we also offer cooperatives the opportunity to collectively apply for interest-free loans. In 2022, we dedicated funds to provide a loan to Ija’tz Cooperative. Their structure is distinct from the majority of our partner cooperatives in that, during the harvest, members deliver ripened cherries to the cooperative's wet mill and processing facilities, where they are paid upfront. In order to facilitate these payments to its members, we provided Ija’tz Cooperative with a loan prior to the harvest which was paid back in full by the close of 2022 upon receiving compensation when exporting green coffee.

In addition, we provided an interest-free loan to the Coffee Growers of San Miguel Escobar to cover overhead operational costs during the harvest in order to scale their green coffee exporting capacity.

GreenCoffee

The international value of coffee is determined by global markets that fix prices based on widespread supply and demand. The price that is set, called the C-price, does not take into account the costs, risks, and labor involved in coffee production and is subject to change each and every day. While it doesn’t incorporate all the factors of coffee production, this figure determines what coffee buyers around the world are willing to pay for the final product. This dynamic makes coffee growing incredibly risky and transactional. De La Gente sets out to disrupt this market norm by promoting relationship-based trade and creating a network of coffee buyers who, too, are guided by the principle of fairly compensating coffee producers.

I wholeheartedly embrace and appreciate DLG’s mission and their dedication to coffee growers and their betterment. [It] is equally unique that they have such incredibly passionate young people who come from coffee backgrounds. You lose that kind of connection when working with larger importers, and building connections is something that is important for me and what I want Cafe Cultura to be.

KatherineGonzalez,CaféCultura

D LG G r een C offee B u y er

For me, it's im the industry travel to Gua interact with professional little about the work that goes into a cup of coffee. I want to be that link [between producers and consumers].

DanielBernard,LesCafésduPaysan

DLG Green

Coffee Buyer

RoastedCoffee

Providing our most significant revenue stream, roasted coffee sales amplify the impact we’re able to generate among our network of eight partner cooperatives. This robust community of roasted coffee customers those who make individual purchases, bulk buyers, and subscribers—play a significant role in making capacity-building opportunities within coffee growing communities possible.

Community TourismProgram

Our Community Tourism Program, based in Antigua, Guatemala, accentuates our mission to generate economic opportunities for smallscale coffee producers and raise awareness about the coffee industry.

In collaboration with members from our partner cooperative, the Coffee Growers of San Miguel Escobar, we provide a variety of interactive, immersive activities. From coffee tours to cooking classes to peanut butter making, activities are led and facilitated by community members themselves so that visitors can authentically and transparently interact with and learn from the local community. In fact our Community Tourism Program infrastructure is made up entirely of community members, including drivers and translators.

Tourism has been a door that has opened up numerous doors to be able to to thrive as a cooperative, as a family, and individually as a coffee producer…. It has allowed my family to improve our quality of life…but above all, it allows us to share our culture. It brings me great satisfaction to feel the appreciation that visitors have for my work….I appreciate the opportunities the [organization] has generated for me over the years, and not just in coffee, but all of the programs that they have created so that we can thrive as coffee producers.

ManuelGómez,CoffeeGrowersofSanMiguelEscobar

1 946

Community Tourism Program visitors ,

$27 380 channeled into coffee growing communitites ,

Our most popular Community Toursim Program offering is our signature Coffee Tour, during which participants not only learn about coffee growing and processing, but also engage with small-scale producers to hear first hand about their obstacles, triumphs, and goals as coffee growers.

COFFEE TOUR COST BREAKDOWN

[per tour > 2 people]

8% $23.50 $15.67 $13.05 $2.80 $13.98

ImmersionProgram

The De La Gente Immersion program serves as a tangible way to raise awareness about coffee production and all actors involved, from farmer to consumer. Immersion Program offerings whether an Origin Trip, Faculty-led Trip, or Immersion Trip all seek to educate participants about the inner workings of the coffee industry and its impact on the communities with which we work.

We provide context through a variety of immersive, hands-on, and informational activities that delve into the complex, and often tragic, history of coffee in Guatemala and the ongoing legacy of undervaluing and exploiting coffee growers for their labor. We show how we’re giving agency to farmers to prove that coffee growing, when paired with processing expertise and market access, can be a tool of economic empowerment.

IMMERSION PROGRAM TRIPS

O R I G I N T R I P S

totaling

Designed for roasters, baristas, and wholesale green coffee buyers, Origin Trips take coffee professionals to the coffee origin where they forge relationships with small-scale coffee producers and more conscientiously examine their own role with the coffee industry.

cooperative loans

Immersion Trips are crafted for coffee enthusiasts seeking to better understand the intricacies of coffee cultivation and interact with small-scale producers. Trip itineraries take participants into the farmers’ fields and homes to learn first-hand about the work involved in producing a cup of specialty coffee.

F A C U L T Y - L E D T R I P S

In collaboration with educational institutions, we implement FacultyLed Trips that use coffee as the vehicle to better understand the legacy of colonialism and imperialism in Guatemala. After understanding the complex history of coffee, participants interact with the producers and witness how they’re now using coffee as a tool for their own empowerment.

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45 165 anneled into receiving communitites

1 Origin Trip

3 Faculty-Led Trips

Multiple Faculty-Led Trips in 2022 included a service-learning component. In January, students from the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire worked alongside members of Cooperative Ij’atz to build a small warehouse at the cooperative’s wet mill, where coffee growers bring the ripened cherries to be processed. Completing the project during the duration of their trip, the warehouse is now used for storing the cooperative’s depulper (the machine that takes the outer skin, or pulp, off the coffee cherry). In May, participants from the Academy of Global Citizenship accompanied Eduardo, a member of our partner cooperative, the Coffee Growers of San Miguel Escobar, in building a water catchment system to tend to his coffee plants.

This project has benefited me and my neighbors, because now we can use the tanks to catch water. Before I had to carry water in plastic jugs out to my coffee fields... It was truly an eye-opening experience working with youth. It fills me with great satisfaction to know that there are people willing to improve the lives of producers, especially youth. After all, they are the future.

EduardoHernández,CoffeeGrowersof SanMiguelEscobar

[Students] come ba greater understand nature of our relatio particular. These lar opportunity to mee personally, emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually challenge all visitors... to rethink what they have learned about the U.S., global trade, international relations, Latin America, indigenous people, and the impacts of one’s decisions.

JeffDeGrave,InterculturalImmersionsCoordinator, UniversityofWisconsin-EAUClaire

De La Gente Team

Martínez Silvia Méndez Interim Executive Director Financial Administrator

Rodríguez Director of Operations

Julio

Danilo

Marcela Méndez Coffee Relationship Coordinator

Ronald Vega

Immersion Program Manager & Coffee Educator

Moises Hernández

Communications Coordinator

Board of Directors

Brandi Stewart-Wood |

Rupesh Shah |

Catriona Forrester |

David Wilson |

Les Stoneham |

Roasted Coffee Sales Coordinator President Vice President Treasurer Member Member

Cecilia Díaz

Ani Villardes

Marketing Coordinator Immersion Program Associate

Ludving Gómez Accounting Associate

Cultivating opportunity with every bean