My visit to Mexico + Guatemala with Food 4 Farmers was one full of inspiring stories, suiting up to visit bee hives, marveling at the natural beauty of the landscape, visiting families in their homes, walking through cities with my two companions Marcela & Luis, informational workshops, tasting the variety of honey products produced by farmers, and, of course, so many photographs.

A week from now I am so thrilled to embark on another trip with non-profit Food 4 Farmers, traveling to Mexico + Guatemala! Food 4 Farmers works in coffee communities to find constructive solutions to seasonal hunger for coffee farmers and their families. In 2013 I traveled to Nicaragua with co-founder Marcela Pino and was able to document and learn about their work with coffee co-op SOPPEXCCA, and see the beginning stages of their program. This time I’ll be entering a later step in the process, visiting communities in Mexico + Guatemala that have been working with Food 4 Farmers for several years, and will be able to observe some of the ways this has impacted their daily lives. 

This past Friday I had my first real gallery opening at Maglianero in Burlington, VT! It was a fantastic night with a great crowd and in support of Food 4 Farmers.

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be showing my Food 4 Farmers photographs June 28th – July 31st at the Karma Birdhouse Gallery at Maglianero Cafe! I’ll be displaying 26 images from the series, and if you are in the Burlington, VT area, you are invited to the gallery opening from 5-7pm on Friday, July 18th.

I see coffee as a connector. It allows resources to travel from one place to another. Through coffee “I’ve been able to get to know the people who produce coffee and learn about their farming, agriculture, activities, and what the land means to them. Often people see coffee as separate from origin, and my job is to help communicate to the industry and consumers, where people do not know the story of the coffee producer, that the two are intertwined. I work to bring the resulting financial and organizational resources to the people who grow the coffee.”

This October I was lucky enough to travel to Nicaragua for two weeks to document the work of Food 4 Farmers. Food 4 Farmers is a non profit that focuses on addressing the problem of chronic seasonal hunger is Latin America. Coffee is a seasonal product, which means when it is no longer a time for harvest or growth, families must rely on what’s left of their income from the coffee harvest, or their savings. Food 4 Farmers works with co-operatives and community-based organizations to help identify challenges, resources and strategies specific to the community and build long-term solutions to hunger. In order to accomplish this, Food 4 Farmers works with communities on Strategic Planning and Capacity Assessment, Community Diagnosis, Partnerships and Alliances, and Monitoring and Evaluation. On this trip I travelled with Marcela Pino, co-director of Food 4 Farmers, to Jinotega where we worked with Soppexcca, a coffee co-op.