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by
Samantha Slater
For
months, we've been tormented by our fellow members of
Cooperative Coffees concerning their upcoming visit to
Americus, our hometown. "Which trailer park will host
us? What immunizations do we need to get before heading
south? Do I need a visa for my passport in order to cross
the border?" and so on, but we’ll take no more of
this!
"In
fact," said Bill Harris, head of our own Cafe
Campesino and a founder of Cooperative Coffees, after the
blazing success of Cooperative Coffees annual membership
meeting, "I think that they were charmed by our
quaint little town.
"Our
friends at The Windsor Hotel, Habitat for Humanity and the
local restaurants really rolled out the red carpet for
us," Bill added.
While
we thought our fellow coffee roasters would enjoy
Americus’ small town Southern charm, we were surprised
and pleased by how much they enjoyed their stay. For many,
this was their first trip to the Deep South.
"It
was an awesome meeting," said Outreach Coordinator
Geoffrey Hennies. "It’s wonderful to see people
with such diverse interests working together for a common
cause. There was a real feeling of teamwork as ideas were
discussed and concepts shared."
Thirteen
of Cooperative Coffee's 17 roaster members from all over the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico came to town last weekend to attend
workshops on cupping, check out the new look of
Cooperative Coffee’s website (www.cooperativecoffees.com),
and discuss fair trade and organic certification, just to name
a few of the many activities. The annual membership
meeting itself was held on Saturday, where our roaster,
Lee Harris, was reelected to the Coop Board of Directors.
"Being
on the green bean committee is going to be good,"
said Lee. "It'll be interesting and fun because we're
actively looking for new green bean producers for the
coop."
But
it wasn’t all meetings and workshops. The Café
Campesino team got to interact in a social aspect with
fellow small roasters at dinner Friday and lunch on
Saturday, which was held at Habitat for Humanity’s
Global Village Discovery Center. The weekend culminated at
our warehouse and roastery with a down-home southern pork
barbeque, grilled veggies and live bluegrass from
Americus’ own Happy Country Boys.
"I
think everyone enjoyed the pig," laughed Lee. "I
had a great time at the disco, or what turned into the
disco," he added, referring to those who stayed late
on Saturday, turning the warehouse into a temporary dance
hall, complete with the music of 1970s disco stars, Abba.
Those
who didn't have to catch an early flight back home on
Sunday attended services at Maranatha Baptist Church in
Plains, GA, where former President Jimmy Carter regularly
teaches Sunday School. President Carter autographed a hard
cover text of his Nobel Peace Prize speech for each
attendee. After church, he joined members of Cooperative
Coffees for lunch at Mom's Kitchen in Plains and discussed
the concept of fair trade, the continual plight of the
small scale coffee producer and the acceptance of fair
trade coffee.
"It
was a great meeting," said Lee. "It seemed like
everyone was very involved this year. I think there was a
lot of excitement, not only going into it, but when
everyone left because it was a pretty successful event. We
have great plans for the future of Cooperative
Coffees."
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