OUR STORY

I started working in Mindanao, Philippines with my husband as a Mennonite missionary with a vision to help in peace building. We were trying to understand one of the longest armed conflicts in the world—the war between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. While doing our peace and reconciliation work among the conflicted groups in Mindanao, we stumbled into using this approach—offering coffee to two disagreeing parties and try to encourage them to resolve their issue through dialogue over a cup of coffee. As long as there was coffee served for that day, there was relative peace at least for that day. Since then, we coined those events “Coffee for Peace”.

Our dream expanded as we see the need for a safe place to talk about peace issues in Davao City. Our small coffee shop was established and became known among peace workers and non-government organization personnel. We then increased our need for coffee supplies.  We were brought to various tribal communities who have been marginalized. Their lands are leased for 25 years to big companies and multinational corporations at a very low price. The lease payments were not enough to sustain them for their basic needs; they needed to borrow money from those big businesses. This puts the farmers to a losing end of the deal; when they are not able to pay their loan, their land are taken away from them.

This problem prompted us to conceptualize Coffee for Peace as a social enterprise that seeks to help advance justice and peace through: 
:: finding a market that would pay fair price for the farmers’ labor and produce;
:: protecting our environment by planting more trees side by side with Arabica trees; and,
:: helping in the work of peace building in Mindanao.

Coffee for Peace is not just another coffee.  It's JUST coffee!

JOJI FELICITAS PANTOJA
CoFounder & Chief Operating Officer

Davao City, January 2011