GMCR Gives $200,000 to Coffee Farmer Landmine Victims Fund

photo courtesy of the coffeelands trust

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has donated a $200,000 2-year grant to the Coffeelands Trust, a fund that supports landmine victims from coffee farms throughout the world. GMCR remains one of the largest private sponsors of the fund, which is maintained by the Massachusetts-based Polus Center, and which has gone to numerous rehabilitation projects throughout the world.

Here is more on the fund, which has also gotten significant support since 2007 from the United States Department of State Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement:

The Coffeelands Landmine Victims’ Trust is a vehicle for coffee corporations to give something back to the farmers who sometimes risk their lives to pick the crop to support their families.

The Trust identifies individual coffee workers who have survived a landmine or unexploded ordnance accident and supports their physical rehabilitation and economic integration through non-governmental organizations and local service providers active in their regions. This funding may be used to imrpove their coffee farms, to help with food security, or for essential rehabiltiation services. The fund also pays for artifical libms, physical therapy, vocational training, small business grants, and other related services that have a direct and lasting impact on improving the lives of coffee farmers and their families.

The Coffeelands Trust accepts donations big and small from private coffee companies of all kinds. The fund is also supported by the Coffeelands Cafe in Clinton, Mass.