A local group helping improve life in El Salvador and Nicaragua has been flying too far under the radar for almost 20 years, but Matt Yough hopes to change that.
Yough, of the South Side Slopes, has been volunteer coordinator since 2003 for
Building New Hope, which also has headquarters in Granada, Nicaragua. The group aids schools, literacy programs and career training, as well as income-producing projects – which is where the rest of Pittsburgh can most easily step in, Yough says.
For the past decade – ever since a drop in global coffee prices left coffee farmers impoverished – Building New Hope has imported the coffee crop of a Nicaraguan worker's cooperative called El Porvenir ("The Future"). After being roasted locally – currently in the Commonplace Coffee Company's Indiana facility – it is packaged here as well (in Commonplace's Squirrel Hill store) and stored and sold by volunteers.
"We sell the coffee as a way to fund our programs in Nicaragua," Yough says. "But at the same time we're helping this cooperative in Nicaragua by paying them more than a fair-trade wage."
They're also helping other Pittsburgh nonprofits, who use their coffee as a fundraiser. The organic, shade-grown brew will be featured, for instance, at presentations and samplings at various Carnegie libraries throughout October and November. The coffee is also sold at Whole Foods, East End Food Coop, Right By Nature and 61C.
One of Yough's favorite recent photos is a Nicaraguan farmer holding up a bag of their coffee. "They wanted to try what we're doing. They're really proud of the product they send us. We're pretty happy with it too."
Writer:
Marty Levine Source: Matt Yough, Building New Hope
Image courtesy of Building New Hope