Monday, March 15

Oh beware of the ides of March. Julius Caesar wasn’t…

Anyway, I wanted to give a quick description on what my three friends are doing (mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry). Mike, Andrew and Patrick are three of my good friends from college. I got to know Mike beginning freshmen year and got to know Patrick and Andrew junior and senior year. The three of them got involved with a UM graduate student and they spent three months this past summer down here doing research. But along with this they began to work on starting a microfinance company down here in Honduras. I know they are working with a fourth individual as well but I don’t know all the details about how they are doing this or how they set it up. Although I do know their overall purpose is to help coffee growers in La Union.

La Union is a smaller community about an hour and a half from where I am in Gracias. As mentioned there is also an Abundant Life Christian School there. My friends are working with the local coop of coffee growers in La Union and are hoping to bring about more economic success for this community. What they are doing is two fold: they are first providing assistance to these growers, such as loans, so that they can purchase fertilizer and anything else needed to help grow the coffee. Along with providing loans they are also working to create a face and a market for these growers—they buy the coffee from the growers and ship it back to the United States. In the United States they have established a partnership with a coffee shop in Saugatuck where the beans are roasted, bagged and sold. So the second part of their work here in Honduras is selling and marketing this coffee back in the United States. They sell their coffee for $10 a pound. Seven dollars of that goes back to the growers in the form of loans and is also used to purchase more coffee (again, this is from my understanding. I am describing what I understood from my conversation with them this weekend). The other $3 goes towards supporting Mike, Patrick and Andrew and their efforts (food, housing, travel expenses etc.). I got really excited for them as they were telling me about what they were doing. I had had conversations with them in the past, but now that they were down here doing it and I am familiar with Honduras, I have a lot better understanding and appreciation for what they are doing.

So, in writing all of this I am doing two things. First, informing you about what three of my good friends are doing down here in Honduras. Second, for those of you who read this and are coffee drinkers, I want you to not only think about at least purchasing this coffee and trying it, but also think and see if know that in buying it you are not only helping my friends, but more importantly helping people down here in the small and poor community of La Union, Honduras. But to also spread the word to anyone you may know who would be interested in helping my friends out. They are still looking for investors as well as people to help them market their product. If you think you know someone or have any possibilities shoot me an email (tad.vandenbrink@gmail.com) and I will relay that information off to my friends. Thanks!

I will post the guys website information and cover letter as soon as I get it from them.