What We Do

Millions of small-scale coffee farmers worldwide struggle with food insecurity, unable to earn enough from coffee to sustain their families. Many face 5-8 months of seasonal hunger each year as coffee income dwindles and food prices soar. An abundance of cheap, nutrient-deficient foods further exacerbates malnutrition in these communities. Since 2011, Food 4 Farmers has worked to address these challenges, helping coffee-farming families overcome volatile coffee prices, rising farming costs, climate change, and other barriers to sustainable livelihoods.

We help coffee-farming families combat food insecurity by producing their own food, diversifying income sources beyond coffee, and strengthening community resilience. Our initiatives include:

• Home gardens
• On-farm beekeeping
• Agroforestry
• Basic grain production
• Farmers markets
• Backyard animals
• Educational workshops
• Community leadership training.

To design and implement our programs, we partner with local organizations – typically coffee cooperatives – to build their capacity to develop, manage, and sustain food security and livelihoods work on their own. From program design to project management, monitoring and evaluation, we work alongside our partners to ensure they can take greater control of food security in their communities equipped with the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to build sustainable programs over time.

From what our farmers have to say to the hard numbers gathered by our monitoring and evaluation teams, our impact is both tangible and measurable.