- November 25, 2024
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Seven months ago, when Fair Trade Café opened, there were a couple months in between coffee restocking orders. This month, they have already ordered coffee twice.
The increase not only means in increase in customers at the Palm Coast cafe, but it also means an increase in wages for Haitian coffee farmers. Fair Trade Café, part of Lifecoast Church, partners with Singing Rooster, a nonprofit which partners with farmer-owned coffee cooperatives in Haiti to provide farmers direct access to markets.
The goal of Singing Rooster is to use coffee as a tool of economic development in Haiti. The group exports and imports from Haiti into Florida, and then to Wisconsin, where Singing Rooster is headquartered. Singing Rooster then roasts and packages the beans.
“Most farmers don’t sustain living wages off crops for export,” said Molly Nicaise, president of Singing Rooster. “We want to go in and change that by paying them well for their crops.”
The coffee makes its way back to Florida through the partnership with the Palm Coast café, in which a portion of the price the café pays for their order benefits Singing Rooster farmers. The church already has an outreach in Haiti, through Trades of Hope.
While café manager Greg Schnepf said the big push is to help Haitian business people, becoming a part of the Palm Coast community is also key for the café.
“We don’t want to be viewed as a Christian coffee shop; we want to be here for the community,” he said. “We don’t want to push away nonbelievers, but hope they see the love of Christ through our actions.”
Schnepf said he and his staff, which is made up solely of volunteers, is trying to achieve a warm and inviting atmosphere. They want to create a true coffee house environment where people come in, stay a while and interact with each other.
Fair Trade Café is located at 4882 Palm Coast Parkway N.W. and is open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.
