S4P Coffee Farm - still a blessing to the community!

Everyone has a unique story to tell if you take the time to listen. Fortunately for us, Brandy is a listener. Lately, he’s been listening to coffee harvesters. That makes sense since it’s coffee harvest time. 

The harvesters that have been showing up are the kind of hard-core people willing to brave the challenges of muddy roads and chilly weather. While they may be few in number, they are strong in moxie. (By the way, “moxie” is an underused word that is defined as “courageous spirit and determination; perseverance.”) While the pickers are harvesting coffee, Brandy has been following alongside, collecting their stories. Here are a few of them:

Brandy discovered that one coffee harvester is a woman around the age of 50, with five children. She’s not new to harvesting. She’s been doing it for years in order to send her children to school. She picked coffee for Sowers4Pastors last year for about three weeks. In doing so she earned enough money to see two of her kids graduate from middle school. 

Then there is a group of women who live three or four miles from the farm. They are single moms who each have two or three kids. They show up each day with their children. Coffee harvest is the most important season of the year for these women because it is how they earn the money needed to provide for their families. Families often harvest coffee together–combining what they’ve picked at the end of the day. Since they are paid for the amount they pick rather than by the hour, the coffee is measured by the gallon and the money earned is paid to a parent. Children rarely get to have their own earnings. That is not the case for this particular group.

These single moms let their children have their coffee measured separately. Shortly before Christmas, Brandy asked the children what they were going to do with their money. $20 must have seemed like a fortune to them. It turned out that they were incredibly excited because they were going to buy their new clothes for Christmas and some snacks for the holiday. 

Shortly before Christmas, the group of women ran out of wood for cooking and weren’t going to be able to pick coffee. They live in a rural area but do not have any land. Collecting wood requires them to walk two hours up the mountain. Brandy was able to tell them that if they came to work, he would give them some wood. Many trees have been cut down or have fallen and there is plenty of firewood on the property. The single moms were so happy and thankful. They had a day of work and wood to cook for Christmas!

These conversations have been a blessing to Brandy and the others at S4P. Brandy said, “I’ve been feeling good. The farm, more than anything, is here to create jobs for people and help the community. I’ve been able to see how it has been a blessing for people.”

 - posted by Christi
 - photos by Quito and Brandy