Without sales of coffee beans to places like Fika coffee, these young men from Burundi might not have a job. They are called “coffee scouts” and they make sure the coffee beans aren’t infected with the potato bug.
Local coffer brewer Josh Lindstrom doesn’t keep tips customers leave in the tip jar. Instead, he sends the proceeds to Burundi, where the funds help the workers who harvest the coffee beans.
“Since September our little coffee shop in rural Minnesota has raised over $2,000 from our tip jar,” Lindstrom said.
Not many companies purchase coffee beans from Burundi because a nasty pest, if not detected, infects the beans. That’s where the coffee scouts come in.
“Once unemployed youth, coffee scouts get their name from their specialized training to scout out a devastating bug called the Antestia,” said Lindstrom. “The Antestia, or potato bug, bores into coffee cherries and injects a bacterium that makes roasted and ground coffee taste like a raw potato. One infected bean can ruin an entire bag of coffee, and because you can’t tell if a bean has been infected until you brew coffee with it, roasters are hesitant to purchase coffee from Burundi. It’s a simple equation to figure out: no buyer, no income for the farm families whose lives depend on it.”
In 2013 Lindstrom found out about the Burundi workers through Ben and Kristy Carlson, owners of Long Miles Coffee. He bought his first fist “lot” of coffee in 2014 from the Carlsons and, said Lindstrom, “never looked back.”
Working with Long Miles Coffee, said Lindstrom, “Is great because it really allows us to help connect our culture here with the culture of the coffee farmers in Burundi. Long Miles has done incredible work with helping the farmers raise the quality of their coffee all the while also raising the quality of the farmers’ life too, by being able to buy their coffee at higher prices than if the farmers sold to the government. Last summer I was able to spend some time with Ben here in Minnesota and told him about our tip jar project that we had started and were collecting money, and asked if he had any projects in Burundi that we could be part of. That’s when he told me about the coffee scouts and their need for rain suits.
“To me it’s truly awesome that we have been able to do this all through our tip jar, and it’s so much bigger than Fika Coffee. We have been able to do this because all of our customers have gotten excited about it too.”
A Fika fundraiser was held on Saturday, April 1 at the Hovland Town Hall to raise awareness and money for the workers in Burundi. All told $1,400 was brought in. The Heck Yeah Holler String Band played music and the crowd had a good time. Baked goodies were served and Fika coffee, of course, was the drink of the evening.
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