Press Release: August 8, 2007
Film follows local coffee company
By Miriam Ostermann
Salmon Arm’s only coffee bean roasters are spreading the message of the Cafe Femenino project on the big screen through Strong Coffee: The story of cafe femenino, a documentary created by Sharron Bates.
Last June Joanne Sargent, co-owner of the Shuswap Coffee Company, took a trip to Peru with five coffee roasters from Canada and the U.S., to meet and help tell the story of the impoverished and often abused Peruvian women that work incredible hours for low pay so we can have a cup of coffee.
The film follows the six roasters on a 12-day journey travelling to the Andes, as they see first- hand the conditions where their coffee beans are grown, picked and processed.
“It’s really important for the roasters to get up there and see the conditions under which it’s farmed; the farmers meet the faces of the people that are out roasting and selling their coffee and telling their story,” Sargent said. “We committed to go up there and rough it and by their terms we weren’t roughing it.”
The 48-minute documentary focuses on the impact Cafe Femenino has in Peru, a project that has now spread to Columbia, Mexico and Guatemala, and the difference it creates for the women and their families. The project makes sure all the coffee is grown entirely by women who in return receive the profits.
Numerous 120-lb bags are stacked in a pile at the Shuswap Coffee Company. It took 400 hours of work to create one bag. But because the company buys Cafe Femenino, the women receive fair trade for their organic, high quality coffee beans.
This means each woman gets $1.36 per pound for labour and an extra two cents per pound for being part of the Cafe Feminino project.
Because of this, more women are now being educated and are able to provide for their families. The documentary reveals the obstacles, labour and problems these women face and the accomplishments and changes that have taken place in these remote villages.
While Sargent spent time in Peru during filming, co-owners of the Shuswap Coffee Company, Debbie Bletcher and Shelley Webber, took care of their business in Salmon Arm, but say the events in Peru, had an effect on them as well.
“We did feel like we were part of something and that we’re actually making a difference,” Webber said. “She (Sargent) was sending e-mails back and they were more of a play by play of what was happening, and the feelings of what she was going through, and she really felt that the link was made between them and us, because here we are embracing the whole idea of the fair trade and helping women that are in a pretty desperate situation.
The women say by taking part in this documentary they have created a bond with the coffee producers and are getting involved in other projects to further aid the women.
“If you went to a coffee shop and they weren’t serving fair trade you would probably walk out again, that’s where we want to get to, but that’s all education,” said Bletcher.
Cafe Femenino products can be found at Askew’s Foods and De Mille Sweet Corn & Produce. ‑For more information about the documentary visit www.strongcoffeefilm.com.