Coffee.  For some it is just a drink to enjoy on occasion and for others a necessity to function before 8 a.m.  However, for the people of San Lucas Toliman, coffee is a way of life.  Coffee is not just a staple in the houses of the San Lucans. Coffee puts food on the table of these families.  Coffee helps put the children of the community through school.  Coffee provides land for a people who have never known the reality of owning property.

Second only to petroleum, coffee is the largest traded commodity on the world market, playing a colossal roll in the US and world economy. With an estimated 11 million hectares of the world’s farmland dedicated to the cultivation of coffee, more than 25 million farmers work in 50 different countries to produce the global supply.

Global Collapse
The plummeting prices of coffee in the world market have led to increasingly lower wages per pound of coffee and fewer jobs in coffee worldwide.  For a community heavily immersed in coffee, like San Lucas, the drastic fluctuation in coffee prices means a lack of basic life securities like food and adequate housing.

The reason for such dramatic price declines, many indicate, is an excess supply of coffee on world markets. Global production has grown dramatically in recent years, even in countries with existing high levels of output. Since 1995, Brazil has increased its production by 61%; Ivory Coast by 67%, and Indonesia by 36%. Vietnam, particularly, has increased production so much that it is now the worlds second largest exporter behind Brazil.

Guatemala ~ Case Study
In Guatemala, a country with a significant percentage of its population living on coffee plantations, low coffee prices signify even poorer living conditions. As global coffee prices have lowered, large coffee producers have been under constant pressure to cut costs.

A recent study of plantations in Guatemala showed that over half of all coffee pickers don't receive the minimum wage, in violation of Guatemalan labor laws. Workers are often subject to forced overtime without compensation, and most do not receive their legally-mandated employee benefits.

Small is Beautifull ~ Juan Ana Coffee
The Juan Ana Coffee program works to alter the situation in which many small Guatemalan coffee growers have found themselves. The project, run and owned by the San Lucas Mission, provides adequate, sustainable living for coffee farmers by paying fair, consistent wages for their coffee, regardless of the market value. In turn, these farmers provide the project with the highest quality coffee.

Promoting the integral development of the community as a whole, the Juan Ana Coffee program is unique because of the role it plays in community-wide economic development.

Coffee is but one program of many – including education, health care, housing, land development, potable water systems, fuel-efficient stoves, reforestation, and experimental farming.

Together, these programs work to liberate families from the crushing poverty associated with life on the coffee plantations. In 2006 the San Lucas Parish packaged more than 103,000 of ground, whole bean, and dark roast coffee, thus providing an adequate living wage for the people of San Lucas and surrounding communities.

In addition to benefiting the environment and providing work for a country with high unemployment rates, coffee provides a chance for families to come together in work and in fellowship.  Juan Ana coffee in particular allows the people of San Lucas and surrounding communities to provide a better life for themselves and their families.