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.

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.

Out of the desire for sufficient food, education, shelter, clothing and land through fair wages, for the people of San Lucas, the Juan Ana Coffee project emerged. 

The program, 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 only the highest quality coffee.

Andres Chajil explains the importance of coffee as two-fold for the country of Guatemala.  “The people not only have work because of coffee, but we have trees.  Without coffee there would be no trees.”  In a country where wood-burning stoves are the primary source for heat and cooking, without the value of the fruit the coffee trees bear, they too would be cut down and the environment of the country would be drastically different.

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.

As we drink our steaming cup of coffee in the morning, the families working with the Juan Ana coffee project are putting breakfast on the table and dressing their children to get ready for school. 

The young child staying home from school for the day is taking the medication that his mother was able to purchase from the pharmacy so that he can get well.  And the father is just outside of town making negotiations to purchase a little more land to grow coffee, corn or other crops to support his family.

“That is the difference with the Juan Ana project,” explained Morales.  “The difference in the money that we pay allows families to pay for their children to go to school, to buy more food and better food, to buy medication when they are sick, and to purchase more land.  The people are happy because they have a way to overcome their situation.”