Part of a partnership: Moon Dollars Coffee helps East African farmers
POST FALLS – With every cup of coffee Rick Demmig sells at the new Moon Dollars Coffee House in Post Falls, customers help bring about change in an East African country torn by civil strife and environmental degradation.
Through a fair-trade partnership with local coffee bean farmers in the Ethiopian province of Sidamo, a group of North Idaho churchgoers-turned-coffee-aficionados, including Demmig, created a cross-continental link that benefits everyone involved – with award-winning brew for customers and much-needed income for the African workers. Located on North Syringa Street not far from the Post Falls Police Department, Moon Dollars shares the building with Dickinson Insurance, which is also a partner in the new business.
However, the tale of how one inconspicuous coffee shop reached out to help people halfway around the world begins several years ago with a farsighted Spokane group that formed in 2001. It was then that a group of men who met at the Real Life Ministries church formed the New Covenant Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the mission of helping the Ethiopian people achieve self-sufficiency by “breaking the cycle of dependence on charity from other countries,” said Mike Stemm, the foundation’s president and general manager of their for-profit coffee business, Dominion Trading Co.
“For us there’s a commitment, and it goes all the way back to the grower,” said Stemm, adding that the foundation’s vision was formed in part by their frequent trips to the Ethiopian province – the birthplace of the roasted, dark bean – through the years. In that time, he said the company’s fair trade pact has developed into much more than an ordinary business model.
“We were uncertain where this was going to go, but we knew it needed to be done,” Stemm said about the coffee trade’s evolution into a coffee shop. “I think it’s personally very rewarding. It’s become a passion. It comes down to the relationships with individuals, and people’s lives are being changed as well.”
Through the establishment of for-profit businesses such as the Dominion Trading Co., a substantial portion of the net income returns to the developing businesses, as well as to the New Covenant Foundation to provide the Ethiopian communities with education, finance and innovation. What’s more, each business aspires to institute a model of economic sustainability, without just throwing money at the problem, said Craig Meredith, another founding member of the foundation and partner with the coffee trading company.
“You have to show them how to do it,” he explained about the business. “Everybody wants to have a cause with their coffee, and there’s nothing wrong with that. For us it’s a passion.”
At the same time thousands of miles away in North Idaho, Moon Dollars Coffee Shop, represents the final step in providing to the public the harvested beans of the far-off nation’s native shrub. Not just a place for a strong cup of caffeine, they also offer homemade soups, breakfast sandwiches, lunches and signature panini dishes.
Flanked by a 65-inch plasma TV and a full kitchen in the fully equipped conference room connecting Moon Dollars to Dickinson Insurance, the four business partners and church acquaintances gathered around the center table to discuss the shared revelations that led to the coffee shop’s September opening.
“We kind of wanted something a little bit up-scale,” said Demmig, Moon Dollars co-owner who also does the baking.
The idea for a shop to offer the Sidamo coffee has been stirring among the group for some time, J.D. Dickinson, CEO of the adjoining insurance company. “The primary goal was a place to support relationships, and a place to do that in a comfortable setting,” he said. “For us it’s the perfect compliment to achieve what we want to achieve.”
The coffee house also serves as a place to chronicle the world-wide relationships shaped since New Covenant Foundation began, from the local growers in Sidamo to their North Idaho enthusiasts. “We want to have Moon Dollars tell the story because they are a big part of this,” Meredith said, adding that pictures of their accounts will eventually be on display.
Still, the creators of the foundation attribute their success to a much higher power than consumer’s pocketbooks, he explained. “The reality is it’s not because of us. It’s a tough thing to put in the newspaper, but it’s not because of us, it’s because of God.”
In any case, the good that’s come from the various organizations can’t be sufficiently described in first-hand accounts; it’s in the stories of the people who’ve had their lives changed for the better, said Galgalo Guyo, a native Ethiopian from the Sidamo province who now lives in Spokane and attends the Real Life Ministries church.
Since leaving in 1982, Guyo said he’s watched from afar as his once-lush and green homeland was stripped of woodland, while its economy spiraled downward. The coffee trade, though, has provided the area a beacon of hope, he said. “It’s awesome, it’s just unbelievable. It was totally different,” Guyo said about his recent 2005 trip home. “You just can’t imagine what they are doing. It’s definitely helping a lot of people. I don’t call it a business. I call it helping people.”