The nonprofit, in collaboration with the Starbucks Basis, will lead the Farmer Faculty of Resilient Communities for its fourth consecutive yr.

BY BHAVI PATEL
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Pictures courtesy of Bean Voyage

Within the verdant hills of Costa Rica, what started as a modest initiative to assist ladies espresso producers has blossomed into one in all the espresso trade’s most impactful producer empowerment applications. Bean Voyage, a nonprofit based by Sunghee Tark and Abhinav Khanal with the intent of empowering ladies in coffee-producing communities, has established itself as a formidable power in reshaping how the trade approaches producer schooling and sustainability.

The group’s core mission facilities on offering ladies smallholder espresso farmers with the instruments, information, and market entry wanted to thrive in an more and more advanced international espresso ecosystem. By way of its holistic strategy to producer improvement, Bean Voyage has pioneered applications that handle not simply agronomic practices but in addition monetary literacy, market negotiation, local weather resilience, and entrepreneurial abilities—parts which have traditionally been boundaries to success for producers. 

Bean Voyage just lately introduced the enlargement of its Farmer Faculty of Resilient Communities, in partnership with the Starbucks Basis, for the fourth consecutive yr.

Going Past the Cup: Uplifting Communities at Origin

Established in 1997, the Starbucks Basis was created to assist farming communities in origin nations by offering grants to nonprofit organizations doing simply that—together with Bean Voyage. The partnership between the inspiration and Bean Voyage formally kicked off in 2021.

Abhinav, who isn’t just Bean Voyage’s co-founder but in addition its govt director, shares that the preliminary focus of the collaboration was tackling meals insecurity. “Our first pilot was targeted on 100 households. We distributed meals baskets and offered coaching on meals safety, which was vital at that second,” he says. “That preliminary partnership additionally included $15,000 in seed capital to assist farmers launch sustainable revenue diversification and meals safety tasks utilizing the instruments they had been studying.“

He continues, “In 2022, we scaled this system and began working with cohorts of 200-250 farmers at a time, combining coaching, mentorship, and seed funding to assist long-term resilience.”

Cultivating Resilience: Contained in the Farmer Faculty

Bean Voyage’s Farmer Faculty of Resilient Communities represents the fruits of each organizations’ experience. First launched 4 years in the past, this progressive instructional platform has reimagined producer coaching by addressing each speedy wants and long-term challenges dealing with espresso communities. 

In contrast to conventional agricultural extension applications that focus narrowly on yield enchancment, the farmer faculty takes a multidimensional strategy. Individuals have interaction in modules overlaying climate-smart agricultural practices, diversification methods, gender fairness coaching, monetary administration, and digital literacy, making a complete toolkit for navigating trendy challenges in espresso manufacturing. 

This system’s distinctive 12-month rural incubator mannequin fosters neighborhood constructing and peer studying whereas making certain accessibility. The varsity’s emphasis on producer company has shifted energy dynamics, encouraging farmers to see themselves not as beneficiaries, however as entrepreneurs and decision-makers.

From Seed to Scale: Measuring Affect Thus Far

Since its inception, the Farmer Faculty of Resilient Communities has demonstrated spectacular outcomes throughout a number of metrics. “As of now, 1,497 farmers have graduated from the farmer faculty, and we’ve distributed $162,760 in seed funding to assist their motion plans,” Abhinav says. “In 2024 alone, we skilled 130% progress, due to the enlargement of our affiliate mannequin into Mexico and Colombia, which allowed us to assist 100 extra farmers and scale our participation to 350 per yr. This additionally meant we had been in a position to distribute $58,400 in seed capital simply this yr.”

He goes on, “By 2027, our purpose is to succeed in 2,500 farmers and distribute $200,000 in seed funding. However greater than the numbers, it’s about deep, sustained affect.”

Past the numbers, the qualitative affect tells an equally compelling story. Alumni of the Farmer Faculty of Resilient Communities have fashioned regional producer collectives, launched value-added product strains, and created studying hubs for his or her broader communities. Most importantly, graduates of the varsity report elevated confidence of their capacity to navigate market relationships and negotiate truthful costs, a basic shift in an trade the place producers have traditionally held restricted bargaining energy.

Overlaying New Floor: Plans for the Farmer Faculty’s Fourth 12 months

The newly introduced fourth-year enlargement of the farmer faculty represents a big escalation of ambition for the partnership between Bean Voyage and the Starbucks Basis. This yr’s cohort goals to assist 250 ladies espresso farmers in Costa Rica, empowering them to develop resilient, diversified farm companies, not directly benefiting over 1,300 members of the family.

In terms of coaching, the cohort will present schooling on local weather resilience, agroforestry, and revenue diversification, together with beekeeping, poultry farming, monetary literacy, and enterprise improvement. It additionally goals to distribute $54,000 in seed funds throughout two levels to facilitate venture initiation and execution. This enlargement comes at a vital juncture, as espresso producers worldwide grapple with escalating local weather volatility, market uncertainty, and generational transition challenges. 

“Proper now, the farmer faculty is energetic in Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, and Honduras. And sure—there are undoubtedly plans to increase! We’re aiming to carry this system to new nations throughout Latin America, with the purpose of reaching 10,000 farmers by 2040,” Abhinav says. “That imaginative and prescient is grounded in our perception that domestically rooted, women-led farming options can actually shift total programs.”

For the espresso trade at giant, this expanded partnership affords a replicable mannequin for significant producer engagement that transcends conventional company social duty approaches. By investing in producer capability moderately than merely buying practices, the Farmer Faculty of Resilient Communities addresses the basis causes—moderately than the signs—of inequality alongside the espresso provide chain.

Because the specialty-coffee trade continues to reckon with questions of fairness, sustainability, and producer livelihoods, the Bean Voyage and Starbucks Basis partnership affords a compelling blueprint for a way cross-sector collaboration can create significant affect at origin. The fourth-year enlargement isn’t simply excellent news for collaborating producers—it’s a hopeful indicator of how the trade would possibly evolve towards a extra equitable future for all stakeholders within the advanced journey from seed to cup.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bhavi Patel is a meals author specializing in espresso and tea, and a brand-building specialist with a background in dairy expertise and an curiosity in culinary historical past and sensory notion of meals.

Subscribe and Extra!

As at all times, you possibly can learn Barista Journal in paper or digital format. Subscribe right here to get your personal hardcopy of every challenge delivered. Learn the April + Might 2025 challenge at no cost with our digital version. 

And for greater than three years’ value of points, go to our digital version archives right here.