Statements
Mission
The Well Coffeehouse is turning coffee into water.
The Well is participating for the first time ever in The Big Payback!
YOU can help our friends and farming partners in Honduras with more access to clean water in the wake of some damaging hurricanes.
As a non-profit coffeehouse, we're focusing on raising $10,000 to purchase this year's crop of Finca la Camotera from our direct-trade partner Edi Sarmiento in Honduras.
With this investment, YOU can help provide TRIPLE THE IMPACT allowing access to 850 PEOPLE WITH SAFE, CLEAN WATER!
We are driven by our purpose to love coffee and love people even more. Our journey began in Nashville in 2012 to build community locally at our coffeehouses and to make an impact globally with our profits by building water wells, prioritizing safe water needs in the countries from which we source the world's best coffee. Since then, thousands like you have been a part of our community in our stores and thousands now have access to safe water across the globe. So, let us serve you a cup of your favorite coffee, as together we help to serve the world.
Background
Our journey began in Nashville in 2012 to build community locally at our coffeehouses and to make an impact globally with our profits by building water wells, prioritizing safe water needs in the countries from which we source the world's best coffee. Since then, thousands like you have been a part of our community in our stores and thousands now have access to safe water across the globe. So, let us serve you a cup of your favorite coffee, as together we help to serve the world.
Impact
Since 2012, our customers have enabled us to provide clean water projects to over 20,000 people in 50 communities. We have also sourced coffee directly from Honduras since 2017 and Costa Rica since 2020 and indirectly from several other Latin American, Central American, African and Indonesian coffee growing communities, making an impact in sustainable living for the coffee growing community.
Our desire is to more closely align our water funding partnerships and strategies to make a holistic impact in the communities from which we source coffee. We want to make sure the countries from which we are sourcing are our first priority to give back, with other highly impacted countries in the water crisis as a secondary opportunity. In 2019, we will began to target water funding strategies and partners that not only provide fair wages to the coffee farmers and workers, but also provide access to the communities with safe water and other complementary interventions such as agriculture support, livestock, solar energy, and social enterprise investment.
According to the UN and World Health Organization reports, many of the countries from which we source the world's greatest coffees are among those with the greatest in need of access to safe water. These priority countries for water globally include Ethiopia (known as the birthplace of coffee), Indonesia and Kenya. Additionally, India, a key source of our tea, is also affected by the global WaSH (Safe Water, along with improved Sanitation and Hygiene practices and education) need.
Needs
Water - A Global Crisis (sources: UN, WHO)
• Globally, 2.1 billion people lack access to safe water.
• Of those, 263 million spend more than 30 minutes per round trip collecting water.
• 159 million are drinking from contaminated sources such as streams or lakes.
• Rural populations around the world are four times as likely as urban populations to be drinking contaminated water.
• Children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are among the highest impacted by the lack of access to safe water. Unsafe water brings illness and disease, preventing children from going to school, people from going to work and adds hours to the simple task of collecting water.
• Water isn't enough. Safe Water, along with improved Sanitation and Hygiene practices and education - or WaSH - is an essential trifecta approach to reduce disease and increase health and livelihood within a community. While 81% of urban residents have the ability to wash with soap and water, less than half of rural populations have the knowledge and
resources to manage their own health in this way.
CEO Statement
Water is life.
I've heard the phrase spoken out of the mouths of parents who want to see their families flourish and children go to school, free of water borne illness.
I've heard the phrase from coffee farmers who struggle to take care of their coffee farms in a sustainable way without overusing the community water supply.
I've seen the devastating impact for those without water, walking miles to collect water that may make them sick. Then, I've seen the joy on faces when a well comes flooding with clean water, changing the story of that village or community or a coffee farmer who can now earn a high price for their coffee because their water source is now protected.
For coffee farmers, their livelihood also needs to be protected. As the market dictates what their coffee is worth, many coffee growers cannot afford to sustain their families or their crops for the prices they are earning for their craft. When we can buy directly, we can ensure greater transparency, higher quality and a better living wage for those who give us their best through the worlds greatest coffee.
Additionally, our own customers are looking for life. We are living in a more isolated world than ever, and the need for community is its own epidemic. Though the community we create in our stores, we hear stories of flourishing in the lives of our customers. We see signs of joy and humanity being restored. Through the experience we create and our commitment to our mission, we see how lives are being changed. All of this is over a cup of coffee, grown, roasted and brewed with care. And through that cup of coffee, we get to all join in the invitation to love full circle.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Food, Agriculture & Nutrition - Fund Raising & Fund Distribution |
| Secondary Category: | Community Improvement, Capacity Building - Economic Development |
| Tertiary Category: | - |
Areas Served
| TN - Davidson |
