The cooperative and specialty-coffee firm have teamed as much as uplift the subsequent era of producers.
BY VASILEIA FANARIOTI
SENIOR ONLINE CORRESPONDENT
Featured picture: A Café Juventud coaching session. Photographs courtesy of Carly Kammerer
In Minneapolis, Wildflyer Espresso has constructed its id round greater than specialty beans. The social enterprise employs youth experiencing homelessness, providing not simply jobs however stability, neighborhood, and a path ahead. Now, Wildflyer is increasing that mission past the US by a brand new partnership with Costa Rica’s Coop Libertad—a cooperative tackling one of the pressing challenges dealing with the espresso trade: the ageing farmer disaster.
“The common age of espresso farmers worldwide is 55,” says Carley Kammerer, founder & CEO of Wildflyer Espresso. “In some areas of Africa, it’s nearer to 60. Lower than 5% of farmers are below 35. We’re dealing with a widening generational hole with an impending provide and demand situation. If we don’t act now, there merely gained’t be sufficient farmers to maintain the trade.”
Coop Libertad’s response is Café Juventud, a program designed to coach, help, and financially empower farmers between the ages of 20 and 40. Members obtain technical help and a value premium—20 cents per pound of espresso—that may be reinvested instantly into their farms.
Carley noticed the initiative as a pure extension of Wildflyer’s mission. “My coronary heart has at all times been in youth work, however my thoughts has at all times been about upstream options,” she says. “I began Wildflyer as a result of I believed employment might be a extra everlasting answer for youth experiencing homelessness. After I discovered concerning the youth espresso disaster, it felt like the identical problem—simply upstream within the provide chain. I needed to determine how we may broaden our mission to help younger folks at origin.”
For farmers like Mario, one in all Café Juventud’s contributors, the impression is tangible. With the premium from his harvest, he has been capable of enhance working circumstances on his farm, improve tools to scale back gasoline use by 30%, and refine his rising processes. “Many individuals don’t know all of the work and energy behind a cup of espresso,” Mario instructed Carley throughout her go to. “Attempting to clarify extra about what a farmer has to do to provide espresso is one thing we want and wish to share with the world.”
Seeing the Problem Firsthand
In July, Carley traveled to Costa Rica to satisfy with Coop Libertad’s CEO and younger farmers in this system. The expertise shifted her perspective on the interconnectedness of espresso.
“It’s one factor to check the problem and perceive conceptually what farmers are up in opposition to,” she says. “It’s one other factor to stroll the land with them, to see their ardour but additionally their stress. Immediately, you notice how our actions as roasters and shoppers are instantly tied to their livelihoods. Local weather change, low wages, unpredictable harvests—it’s not summary for them. It’s every day survival.”
One second particularly caught together with her: sitting at Mario’s residence, consuming espresso harvested just some toes away. “It felt surreal—a type of ‘how did I get right here, however I’m so glad I’m’ moments,” she says. “We weren’t simply enterprise companions; we had been mates united by a shared mission. It made me fall in love with espresso in a brand new means.”
Parallel Journeys: From Minnesota to Costa Rica
For Carley, the connections between the younger farmers of Coop Libertad and the youth she works with in Minnesota are placing. “It comes right down to preventing for a greater life,” she says. “There’s this unbelievable resilience, hope, and willpower.”
“Considered one of our graduates as soon as instructed me that homelessness is ‘onerous, and it wears and tears identical to a job would.’ When Mario talked about wanting folks to know the work behind espresso, it felt so related,” she continues. “Each teams are asking for recognition of the hassle it takes to outlive and construct a future.”
Partnering for a Collaborative Roast
The partnership between Wildflyer and Coop Libertad will culminate within the launch of a collaborative roast on October 1, 2025. Carley hopes it sparks consciousness in addition to pleasure.
“There’s a variety of vitality round espresso that helps ladies farmers, honest wages, or certifications like natural and Rainforest Alliance—all of that are necessary,” she says. “However I don’t see a lot dialog round this youth disaster, and I believe it’s important. This roast is creating futures throughout the provision chain, uniting youth in Costa Rica with youth in Minneapolis and St. Paul. That’s one thing particular.”
Carley sees this partnership not as a one-off collaboration, however as the muse of a long-term shift in Wildflyer’s sourcing practices. “Our plan is to develop our relationship with Coop Libertad and Café Juventud, after which broaden to different origins,” she says. “In the end, I need each farm we purchase from to be investing in youth employment alternatives and help. That means, each cup of Wildflyer espresso represents a future being constructed—whether or not right here within the Twin Cities or hundreds of miles away.”
For now, the October roast presents an opportunity to style what solidarity can brew. As Carley places it: “This cup of espresso is creating jobs in Costa Rica and right here in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I believe that’s one thing actually distinctive—and value getting enthusiastic about.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vasileia Fanarioti (she/her) is a senior on-line correspondent for Barista Journal and a contract copywriter and editor with a major concentrate on the espresso area of interest. She has additionally been a volunteer copywriter for the I’M NOT A BARISTA NPO, offering content material to assist educate folks about baristas and their work.
Subscribe and Extra!
As at all times, you may learn Barista Journal in paper by subscribing or ordering a problem.
Learn the August + September 2025 Problem totally free with our digital version.
Totally free entry to greater than 5 years’ value of points, go to our digital version archives right here.
