FMSC MarketPlace: Fabretto Coffee

Meghan Howard runs FMSC’s MarketPlace, a program designed to create income and self-reliance for artisans living in the communities where FMSC sends food. Visit fmscMarketPlace.org to purchase items.

If you are one of the fortunate individuals who start the day off with a cup of School Grounds Coffee from the Cusmapa cooperative in Nicaragua, enjoy each sip knowing your purchase has helped in more ways than one!

As FMSC’s MarketPlace Coordinator, I was fortunate to travel to Cusmapa, Nicaragua to meet a handful of the coffee farmers in the local cooperative. This direct connection to the coffee FMSC sells in our MarketPlace and the farmers who make it was coordinated by our food partners, Fabretto Children’s Foundation in Nicaragua. Fabretto has served more than 4 million MannaPack meals since 2010 in their network of schools and feeding programs.

We were invited to join the coffee farmers at their morning meeting. When Kevin Marinacci, CEO of Fabretto, asked the farmers how many of their children attended Fabretto schools serving FMSC meals, hands went up throughout the crowd! What an honor to see the direct connection our three organizations have supporting one another’s missions!

We traveled to one particular family coffee farm still run by a grandfather, his son, and his grandsons. The landscape was beautiful and it was inspiring to walk among the coffee plants that would soon produce beans to be sold in the cold Midwest! The beans in each bag of School Grounds Coffee are grown, picked, dried, and shipped by this family and many more who are members of the hardworking Cusmapa cooperative.

One of the main criticisms of nonprofits is that they do not work together often enough. I am grateful to say that this is not the case with our food and MarketPlace partners. We could not work with the wonderful artisans we do without the help of our food partners–local organizations who know their communities. Our MarketPlace artisans are very grateful as well for support from FMSC volunteers who purchase goods! Everyone benefits and grows stronger when we work together.

If you enjoy a “must-have” cup of coffee to begin each day, I highly recommend Fabretto’s School Grounds Coffee. The reach of MarketPlace goes far beyond the award-winning coffee beans in that great cup of coffee–we make a difference to each member of the cooperative and their children who receive an education along with a hot, nutritious FMSC meal each day.