Our partnership with Farmer Brothers Coffee, a U.S. coffee roaster, wholesaler and distributor of coffee, tea and culinary products, exists to support the foundation of the supply chain: the farmers and their families. Our holistic approach is helping farmers learn how to process their coffee more efficiently, prevent water contamination from processing, and better manage their finances — all of which leads to greater stability for families. As part of this work, we’re training young coffee farmers to work as outreach promoters, who receive specialized training in coffee cultivation from a professional agronomist about crop management, how to prevent and treat plant diseases, environmentally friendly farming practices and ways to ensure their families have a sufficient and nutritious diet. They then pass that learning to the 20 to 40 farmers assigned to each promoter, making it an efficient — and cost-effective — way to convey technical information to a large number of coffee producers. In this way, Lutheran World Relief treats farming as family business and protects the next generation of farmers. For Farmer Brothers, investing in these communities by helping farmers to increase their yields and build stronger businesses fortifies and stabilizes its supply chain, and means that its customers will get high-quality, ethically sourced coffee.
Lutheran World Relief is an internationally-recognized leader in transforming poor rural economies. From Gold Fields Limited to The Hershey Company to the Starbucks Foundation and Farmer Brothers Coffee, Lutheran World Relief has relationships with global industry leaders.
We understand rural communities and economies.
Our regional staff of experienced administrators, specialized grant managers and agricultural engineers create linkages along value chains that benefit producers and generate profits for corporations.
Lutheran World Relief can connect your company with the agricultural producers who form the basis of your value chain and can help strengthen that value chain.
Our holistic approach starts with the farmer.
We provide expert training to farmers and cooperatives so they can learn new and effective growing, harvesting and post-harvest handling methods, and we develop innovative information communications technology to access and share information. We also work alongside cooperatives and producer organizations to improve governance and administrative capacity.
We are able to connect producers with credit and financial assistance, and our partnerships with certification organizations including Biolatina, FLO, and UTZ Certified help farmers secure valuable organic, fair trade and other certifications.
We help companies achieve business and corporate social responsibility goals.
By strengthening producer associations, Lutheran World Relief protects the foundation of your value chain. We also helps companies achieve CSR and sustainability goals, whether voluntary or required under national law. Our strong accountability practices will allow your company to monitor the social impact.
Interested in connecting? Email lwr@lwr.org for more information.
Notable partners.
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Farmer Brothers Coffee
- Gold Fields Limited
- The Hershey Company
- Gold Fields Limited
Our partnership in Peru with Gold Fields Limited, a global gold mining firm, has established trust and cooperation between the company and the surrounding community in Hualgayoc, a remote district located high in the Andes Mountains where a changing climate has caused longer and more frequent dry spells, making water a scarce resource for most of the year. Most families farm and raise livestock and more than half of the population lives in extreme poverty. With funding from Gold Fields, Lutheran World Relief worked with farming families to help them better manage their limited water supply and optimize their diary production and processing. We also engaged the community in leadership development trainings to promote conflict resolution and a culture of dialogue.
We’ve collaborated with The Hershey Company to improve cocoa cooperatives’ fermentation and drying techniques. Hershey's experts analyzed cocoa samples in their labs and provided detailed recommendations on post-harvest techniques. As a result, Lutheran World Relief’s local partner cooperative in Nicaragua was awarded first place at the country’s first national cocoa competition. Lutheran World Relief’s access to cocoa cooperatives in Central America allowed the Hershey Company to provide in-kind support through technical assistance and use the achievements to bolster their corporate social responsibility agenda.