MarchApril Newsletter

San Lucas Mission Newsletter March/April 2019 Letter from Edy On behalf of the Juan Ana Coffee program, we In This Edition send you a friendly hello and wish you many blessings. We are incredibly grateful for the donations Juan Ana Coffee of all the people that abundantly support the coffee program in benefit of the small coffee Hear from Edy, the Director of growers. The Juan Ana Coffee program has the program, from local coffee been of tremendous economic support to the growers, and learn about some of coffee growing families of San Lucas Tolimán Café Juan Ana’s recent through the purchasing of ripe coffee beans accomplishments. from small coffee producers. It has been a great blessing to the growers to receive a supe- San Lucas Updates rior and fair price for their product and a great blessing for us, the employees of the program, Catch up on other Mission news to provide a better life for them and our fam- through our quick updates from ilies. We have been working on and achieved a consistent and competitive San Lucas Tolimán. quality of coffee at the departmental and national level. We are now part of the prestigous “Ruta Ecologica de Café Atitlán” which allows us to share our Recovering from Fuego quality product with both national and international tourists. Thank you all for being an important pillar in our work and the social and economic devel- Read about how the Mission opement of the families of San Lucas Tolimán. helped support families displaced May God bless you always, by the Volcán Fuego eruption Edy Morales that happened last year. Director Café Juan Ana Other Updates Our KC event was a huge success and meet Heidi Schleif!

Juan Ana Coffee Working Women - Meet Some of Our Female Coffee Growers Candelaria Xep López Candelaria is 53 years old and lives in Pampojilá. She has 6 kids and owns 15 cuerdas of land where she grows coffee. Candelaria says the greatest benefit of the Juan Ana Coffee program is the fair price and de- pendable source of income. “I have been selling my coffee at Juan Ana Coffee for about 15 years. Since that time, they have supported us with the price of our product.” Candelaria’s only source of income is from the sale of her ripe coffee. She uses this income to buy fertilizer for her coffee plants and to pay her loans and bills. “My hope for the future is that the program continues to buy more coffee like the previous years, because it’s a shame selling the coffee I’ve worked so hard to grow in the street for such a low price.” Marta Regina Ajpuz López Marta is 37 years old and lives in San Lucas Tolimán. She has 5 kids and owns 5 cuerdas of land to produce coffee. The income she receives from selling her ripe coffee to Juan Ana Coffee has allowed her to purchase more land and maintain her coffee plants and to pay for her children’s education and costs of living. “I’m grateful for the support the program has provided me through purchasing my ripe coffee and providing coffee growing workshops. This is the only program that pays the best price. Because of that, I have been able to purchase 2 more cuerdas of land to continue to grow more coffee.” Florinda Xep Ajcot Florinda is 50 years old and lives in San Lucas Tolimán. She has 4 kids and owns 14 cuerdas of land to grow coffee. With the money she receives from selling her ripe coffee to Juan Ana Coffee, she’s able to help cover the costs of her family including food and medicine. She’s also able to buy tools and fertilizer to maintain her coffee plants. “I am so grateful that the Juan Ana Coffee program has purchased my coffee over the last 5 years. I hope the program continues benefitting small coffee growers like me.”

What a Year It’s Already Been! From April 11-14, Café Juan Ana was one Quick Updates from of seven coffee brands featured at the Gua- temalan coffee booth at the Specialty Coffee San Lucas Tolimán Expo in Boston, MA. Attendees at the expo were able to sample the coffee and our own 1Holy Week Josiah Mooney from our coffee committee was able to attend and connect with other One of the biggest celebrations of the roasters. The Guatemalan coffee booth won year in Guatemala is Holy Week. Taking prizes for both “Best Booth” and “Best Pop- place the week before Easter, the week Up Cafe” at the event. It was a wonderful is full of beautiful “alfombras” made opportunity to share the Juan Ana Coffee from colored saw dust, flowers, fruits story and connect with others. and vegetables and there are several processions representing the death and 2018/2019 COFFEE PURCHASING STATS 230,000 Pounds of ripe coffee purchased from 2resurrection of Jesus. local growers Soccer Champions 158 Individual small coffee producers who The students of Colegio Monseñor sold their coffee to us for a fair price Gregorio Schaffer have been Over $61,000 Paid to local, small coffee participating in basketball and soccer growers tournaments against other local schools and the girl’s soccer team has won the You can purchase local championship! They are advancing Juan Ana Coffee and sign-up for to the next tournament which will take our subscription service online at 3place in San Pedro. sanlucasmission.org Fr. John’s Birthday On April 5th, Fr. John celebrated his 81st birthday! Alhtough he was in the States for a visit, the people of San Lucas still celebrated with a mass and, of course, fireworks.

Recovering from Fuego On June 3rd of last year, Volcán Fuego erupted, killing nearly 200 people who were unable to escape the path of the quickly falling lava and ash. Over 3,000 people were evacuated from their homes and many weren’t able to return as their towns were destroyed or buried. We asked our generous donors to support our efforts in helping the families displaced by this disaster. From that moment on, our Charity Program worked hard to seek out other local programs to find displaced families we could help directly. After working with local parishes and priests who were helping the families affected, we were referred to Cáritas de Escuintla where we found the López family. Faustino and Juana are the parents of Carlos (20) who has Down Syndrome, and Miriam (12). The fam- ily made their living picking coffee until their home and the surrounding coffee fields were destroyed by Volcán Fuego. Through the help of Cáritas de Escuintla, we were able to use your generous donations to get this family back on their feet. They now have a new block home with a concrete floor, electricity, water and furni- ture and they are located close to coffee fields where they will be able to continue their work. We want to thank our generous donors for their support in these relief efforts and our Charity Program team for working so hard to get in touch with local organizations and families. The Arch (Former FOSL Executive Director), Emi (Charity Program Director), López family can now move on from this tragedy. Cecilia (Volunteer Coordinator) and Leonel (Director of the San Lucas Mission) deliver the keys to the López family and welcome them home. Kansas City Success! Welcome Heidi Schleif On March 29th over 280 people attended We welcome Heidi Schleif as our new a celebration of the Friends of San Lucas Volunteer Coordinator and we say sponsored by Strickland Construction. “Good bye” to Cecilia Nguyen. Thank Held in a private car museum, the event you to Cecilia for over a year of service raised over $600,000 to support program- to the people of San Lucas. Heidi has ming in San Lucas. Thank you to Rogers already started her work with us and and Peg Strickland for their tireless efforts will be with us for, at least, the next 18 on behalf of the people of San Lucas. months. Thank you for your support and generosity to the San Lucas Mission. Friends of San Lucas • 4679 Cambridge Drive, Eagan, MN 55122 • 651-508-1848 • sanlucasmission.org