Akili Foods stands out as an excellent Kenyan-run farming operation. The staff were extremely generous hosts with a strong understanding of local food supply chains and the challenges many Kenyan farmers face in growing and selling their crop. Thanks to Mrs. Washira for showing us around her lush farm, and thanks to Pauline, Julius, Catherine, and the team for the hospitality.

74 year-old Samuel knows his ‘why’, the driving reason behind his farming.Originally from Gikungere Hill in the landlocked African nation of Burundi, Samuel is also a father to nine children and a grandfather 16 times over! ⁠

These women are Josephine and Frescesme, two remarkable sisters whose love and support for one another inspires us.

In a culture where a woman’s honor and respect is tied to her marital status, you can imagine the challenges these strong, resilient women have faced in a male-dominated world, but they relied on one another to keep going and to grow their coffee farming business.

Vital Niyibaruta is a coffee farmer from a coffee farming community called Nkonge Hill in the East African of Burundi. He’s a 39 year-old father of four with an easy, confident smile.

Margaret is a Kenyan farmer and co-leads an agricultural business near Mt Kenya with her husband, Haron. Margaret’s farm felt like Eden, it was so lush and vibrantly ‘alive’ in every sense of the word. While we have not partnered with Margaret’s business, Akili Foods, they are a distributor of our latest portfolio partner and impact investment, Long Miles Coffee.

This Giving Tuesday, we’re partnering with Long Miles Coffee to provide critical inputs (seed, fertilizer) that will help coffee farmers in East Africa triple or even quadruple their yield!

The European and North American workforce loves coffee, no secret there, but do they love the coffee farmers, too? Historically, the honest answer to that would be…