The Seattle Times
December 22, 2001
By Jake Batsell

It's a Sunday-morning staple, something to sip during chats with fellow churchgoers after listening to hymns and sermons about serving a higher purpose. But today, coffee itself is playing a larger role in churches' commitment to social justice. More churches are buying organic, "fair-trade" and "shade-grown" gourmet coffee, with profits benefiting environmental and social causes that are in step with congregations' faith-based values.

Independent companies that specialize in selling such coffee are increasingly turning to churches, synagogues and other places of worship, tapping into an audience that is likely to be receptive to an altruistic sales pitch.

"It's a natural marriage," said Dan Olmstead, co-owner of Poverty Bay Coffee in Auburn, which last year began selling its shade-grown coffee to St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Bellevue and has since landed three more churches as customers. "They're there to try to find ways to make a tangible difference, and when you can (make a difference) in the natural course of buying things you need, everybody wins," Olmstead said.

Equal Exchange, a Canton, Mass.-based coffee company that buys its beans directly from farmers in the developing world, says sales through its Interfaith Coffee Program have jumped 50 percent in the past year to about $810,000 in 2001. The 4-year-old program has grown to include 3,800 congregations of various denominations and religions, including 155 in Washington state. "There's a really strong link in communities of faith around social-justice issues," said Erbin Crowell, coordinator of Equal Exchange's interfaith program. "Just by coincidence, right there in front of them is this product that they share on a weekly basis that is perhaps one of the most direct links to communities in the developing world."

Among the array of so-called "coffees with a conscience" are fair-trade certified, organic and shade-grown. With fair-trade coffee, a third party certifies that coffee beans are bought from indigenous farmers for a fair, set price -- right now, it's a minimum of $1.26 a pound. The fair-trade movement has gathered momentum this year as world coffee prices have plummeted below 50 cents a pound, worsening the living conditions of many farmers as plantations have shed jobs and cut wages.

Organic and shade-grown coffees have a more environmental focus. Organic farmers avoid use of pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals. With shade-grown farming, taller trees protect the coffee plants, enrich the soil and provide a habitat for migratory birds.

All of those causes appeal to Rev. Leroy Hedman of South Seattle's Georgetown Gospel Chapel, who said his church became an Equal Exchange customer earlier this year because "we believe in justice and empowerment." Hedman said many of his church's members are blue-collar workers who can relate to the idea that farmers should be paid fairly for their labor. "We do it for the sake of fairness to the small farmer and their cooperatives and also for a good product that's organic and hopefully shade-grown and a lot better for the environment," he said.

At another Equal Exchange customer, Temple Beth Am in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood, Rabbi Jonathan Singer delivered a sermon on Yom Kippur in September that singled out buying fair-trade coffee as a way to combat injustice. "It fit in very well with the message he wanted to deliver on Yom Kippur: We should not willingly support the oppression of others," said Temple Beth Am member Allan Paulson, who serves on the temple's social-action committee and has worked to bring fair-trade coffee to the temple.

Pura Vida Coffee, a Seattle-based retailer that donates its net profits to children's programs in coffee-growing regions around the world, reports that about half its sales stem from churches, Christian bookstores and religious retreat centers. John Sage, a former Microsoft executive who co-founded Pura Vida, said sales have grown by about 150 percent for three years running. "We're probably signing up at least two new churches or Christian bookstores a day," Sage said. "Even if the coffee is selling at a premium, the church is willing to pay for it."

Fair-trade, organic and shade-grown coffees generally run somewhere between $8 and $12 a pound, though many churches are considered wholesale customers and receive discounts. While more expensive than the canned coffee that still represents the majority of U.S. coffee sales, it's comparable in price to the products offered by major specialty coffee chains, some of whom sell their own fair-trade and organic blends.

Church coffee, of course, has long had a dubious reputation -- as Sage recalled, "Somebody once told me that the only coffee worse than church coffee is military coffee."

"People make jokes about church coffee, and they're all deserved," said Peggy Johnson, business manager for St. Margaret's. "The first thing we wanted was to create a cup of coffee that people would drink, and increase our hospitality. "Given the opportunity to buy coffee where the benefit accrues to the farmer as opposed to the corporation -- and to do it at little or no increase to the price -- was almost a no-brainer."

But to be successful in a java mecca like Seattle, coffee that promotes a noble cause has to be backed up by a product that is pleasing to the palate. "It was really, really important to me that our coffee be of super-high quality for it to stand on its own," Sage said. "It's not enough to be a good cause. That's usually the knockout punch."

Sharon Webb, who discovered Pura Vida coffee two years ago at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, said she's a fan of the taste and the cause. "It's excellent coffee, and then I heard that it supports people," Webb said. "I like the idea of being able to use my coffee money to help others."

Jake Batsell can be reached at 206-464-2718 or jbatsell@seattletimes.com.