Dec
Community Development Projects
Cafe Juan Chacon
This hand-picked and processed coffee from along the cool pine-shaded slopes of the Chalatenango province of El Salvador, near the Honduras border. It arrives to your cup through a special collaboration between the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), Madison-based Just Coffee and the farming families of the Ereguán Coffee Collective.
Shared Values
The producers of Café Chacón have organized a cooperative of coffee growers and processors who are building community based on an economic model of mutual solidarity. When you drink Café Chacón you join with them in building this solidarity. Café Chacón is carefully grown without the use of pesticides on family-sized plots 1000 meters above sea level. These conditions assure premium taste, an equitable economy for coffee growers, and ecological sustainability.
A History of Struggle
The northern region of Chalatenango was the center of heavy conflict during El Salvador´s 12-year civil war (1980-1992). The people of the region were forced to flee to the mountains to avoid death squad patrols—all but abandoning their villages during the war. Many saw their homes and crops destroyed by the army.
The armed conflict ended in 1992, when Peace Accords were signed. Since then, communities have been faced with rebuilding their homes and readjusting to civilian life. In the years following the war, many people returned to what was familiar to them: cultivating and harvesting coffee.
But these growers have come a long way since the days of toasting coffee alongside their daily tortillas. Their cooperative buys coffee from local growers, dries the beans using solar technology, roasts them to perfection, and sells the finished product throughout El Salvador.
Café Chacón is an export quality micro-roast that brings the best of this growers co-op direct to you, through solidarity relationships with MOFGA and U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities.
To order contact info@justcoffee.net
Download a PDF of the Café Juan Chacón label
