On Giving Tuesday, we were humbled to match your donations to the Maya Ixil Hurricane Relief Fund with the good folks at Food 4 Farmers. We were very grateful for your generous response — and are excited to now announce, we will continue to match your donations!
Back in November, an estimated 13,000 Guatemalan families have lost coffee, banana, cardamom, and other plantations due to the storm. Our Maya Ixil partners were no exception to this tragedy.
Hurricanes Eta & Iota struck Central America extremely hard earlier this year and they have dealt devastating blows to the coffee growing communities in Central America, specifically in Guatemala. The resulting floods and landslides have caused loss of life, home, crops, and livelihoods. Unfortunately, many of the Maya Ixil co-op members we work with lost their coffee/corn crop.
Of the Maya Ixil growers, thankfully, there are no reported deaths. Currently, 29 coffee growing families are living in communal spaces. Other families have evacuated to the mountains to wait for better weather. Unfortunately, around 30% of the bee apiaries that the Maya Ixil farmers maintain were also devastated. This comes as a huge blow to the Maya Ixil farmers, who maintain the bee hives in the off-season to generate additional income.
Other surrounding coffee growing communities have also been greatly affected. Numbers in recent news do not reflect the roughly 200 other displaced Ixil community members who are currently living in community centers.
Mr. Espresso has partnered with Food 4 Farmers, which represents more than 8,000 coffee-farming families working to put good, healthy food on the table every day. In some of the photos on the left, you see a distribution center for some 200 food items funded through Food 4 Farmers. More is needed and more is still on the way.
For more than 14 years we’ve partnered with the wonderful indigenous Ixil farmers. They are committed to growing premium organic, Fair Trade Certified coffee and honey.
We encourage you to make any donation you can to the Maya Ixil farmers. Mr. Espresso has committed matching funds up to a total of $2,500. Each donation is tax-deductible. Visit the Food 4 Farmers donation page and select your donation level.
Your donation will be doubled with our Maya Ixil Donation Match. In the “Donor Information” section, navigate to the “address 2” field and enter the text, “Mr. Espresso Match”.
We are extremely grateful for those of you able to partner with us. If you cannot, please keep the dear Maya Ixil people in your heart. We will continue to be providing updates as we learn them. Stay tuned to our social media and our blog to stay updated.
