Sisters' Story Coffee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-h48DTYJL8

Sisters’ Story purchases coffee from small scale Indigenous women farmers in the Andes of northern Peru.

Sisters’ Story also provides financial support to local women’s shelters and sexual assault centres.

The coffee is Certified Fairtrade and Certified Organic.

Our Sisters’ Story Begins with Indigenous Women Growing Coffee in the Andes of Northern Peru

Coffee farming is hard work and often women do most of it, but they don’t always benefit financially. The men of the families typically collect payment at the coffee market. The money rarely makes it back to the household economy. Without their own economic power, women struggle to keep themselves and their children safe and well. Women in these mountainside communities were found to have a 70% risk of experiencing physical and sexual violence. Young women rarely made it past primary school, many becoming mothers in their teenage years.

These Women Created a Better Way

These women had an idea. An innovative and entrepreneurial idea. Indigenous women from 60 communities became involved in a Fairtrade coffee co-operative. They shared the stories of their difficult lives. They decided that together they could change their lives by selling their coffee separately from the men. They get a higher price because of the Fairtrade standards, plus a premium to support community projects. Now, they no longer cook over open fires because they can afford energy efficient stoves that keep the smoke from infecting their eyes and lungs. They nurture the local ecology by growing the coffee organically and have learned to grow more nutritious food.

A Successful Women’s Enterprise

The farmers govern and manage this project themselves. They’ve developed leadership skills so that they can participate in government and non-governmental organizations. They have built local infrastructure including roads, classrooms, warehouses, and irrigation systems. Girls now go further in school, excelling, even gaining higher degrees. There has been a significant decrease in violence against women.

It began with 8 women in 2004, now there are more than 700 women involved. Their idea has flourished, bringing security to their families.

Supporting Women Beyond Borders

Their success is not only about helping their own families. When they learned that some women in North America also experience violence, they insisted that any coffee company roasting their coffee should support women in their own community.

Our Sisters’ Story Coffee builds on their vision of women helping women across borders. We import and roast this special coffee, and we ensure the farmers receive a better price. When you purchase Sisters’ Story Coffee online a portion of the price will be donated to a local women’s shelter or sexual assault centre of your choice.

These wonderful coffee farmers describe the people involved in Sisters’ Story –from their farm to our roastery to your coffee cup –as being part of a global, but intimately linked caring family.

Each bean, each cup, transforms communities, empowering women, and strengthening home economies.

Cafe Feminino

Sisters’ Story is part of the Cafe Femenino Coffee Program which provides direct compensation to women farmers, along with the opportunity and resources to enact positive change in their communities and on their own terms.

About Our Certifications

Certified Fairtrade by Fairtrade Canada ensuring that it meets international Fairtrade Certification Standards.

Certified Organic by Ecocert Canada.

Ecological Sustainability

Sisters’ Story represents a unique fundraising model, one that aligns the values and goals of multiple social impact organizations in the global north and south—and uses the marketplace to maximize good.

Organic standards ensure that the earth is treated well, by what is otherwise an environmentally devastating crop. Fairtrade standards, ensure that commerce holistically supports human health and wellbeing. Wherever possible we strive to reduce our ecological footprint.

Sisters Story is committed to upholding the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We meet 14 of the 17 SDGs.

About Our Bag

Our fully compostable coffee bag is more than 99% petroleum free, made from paper and other bio-based materials. This helps us to reduce the carbon footprint of our packaging. The bag is suitable for home composting but is not currently accepted into many municipal composting green bin systems. Ultimately, we selected this bag to eliminate micro plastic contaminants from remaining in the soil or washing into rivers and oceans.