Organic Double Shift Coffee, 5lb whole bean

This series highlights and honors women leaders in the coffee supply chain and the human connections that are often very personal. Double Shift features the story of Anna, Equal Exchange’s Production Supervisor in Massachusetts, meeting Martha, a coffee farmer member of ASPROCAFE Ingruma in Colombia, where they spent a few days together on Martha’s farm. At our roastery, Anna leads a team that organizes and packs our coffee on the production line, and she had never been to visit a coffee farm in her 9 years at Equal Exchange until last year. It was a powerful and transformative experience. When she met Martha, a coffee farmer, retired nurse, and mother of 2, she was impressed. “She does everything—harvesting coffee, tending her fruit trees, caring for the chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs, and bee hives. When you see her farm, everything is organized how she wants it. There are no pesticides. She likes living clean. Her compost is amazing. No waste; everything is used, reused, and recycled. I am more appreciative of the work the farmers do [now]. It’s hard work. I am [also] more appreciative of my work. I am also giving hope to people. I think about how many lives we are impacting. It’s a circle. Every bean is life.”