Every quarter a group of Green Mountain Coffee employees meet to discuss our Coffee-Growing Community Outreach

Groundbreaking of organic garden (photo from Pueblo a Pueblo blog)
grants. It is a great way to learn about the different organizations and regions our company touches. At a recent meeting I got to learn about a project we supported in partnership with Pueblo a Pueblo in Santiago Atitalan, Guatemala to start an organic garden at Escuela Mixta Rural de Panabaj school. They broke ground in early February and were sowing the first seeds by the end of the month (read about it on their blog)!
Pueblo a Pueblo, an organization that helps to improve the lives of indigenous Guatemalans, describes the project below:
“The area surrounding Santiago Atitalan is among one of the the poorest regions in Guatemala. In a region where many households live on less than a dollar per day and do not own livestock, families face severe seasonal food shortages, known as “los Meses Flacos” (the thin months).
Pueblo a Pueblo has worked in this region since 2005 and has been involved in school nutrition and providing healthy

Planting in school garden (photo from Pueblo a Pueblo blog)
meals to needy children. Our new partnership with Green Mountain Coffee only adds to this effort bringing life-changing aid to child nutrition and families who need our help the most. Our shared goal is to improve nutrition and strengthen
food security.
Through a two year pilot project grant, we seek to teach 500 children in the Escuela Mixta Rural de Panabaj about organic gardening and basic nutrition. We will help the school community increase food supplies through education and diversification of crops to include foods with higher nutritional values.

Garden after Tropical Storm Agatha (photo from Pueblo a Pueblo blog)
Their food security efforts teach children and their families ways to avoid food shortages and increase nutrition, while our development projects also support educational opportunities and improve family health.”
Although the garden and the area were affected by Tropical Storm Agatha in May (read about the storm and damage), repairs continue and the garden is recovering.
Read more about our Coffee-Community Outreach on our Corporate Social Responsibility website, http://www.brewingabetterworld.com.