Hailstorm La Union: The Recovery Process Begins

It has been just over a week since the hailstorm in La Unión. Over 300 houses were damaged, water sources are still contaminated, and an estimated 250 acres of coffee farmland were heavily damaged. However, the recovery effort has begun and the people are doing their best to cope. I would like to take a moment to discuss the effects, both short-term and long-term, of this hailstorm. First the immediate effects and recovery effort that is beginning.

Many homes have been repaired, with roofing material made available through the local government. However, there are still many homes that are waiting for materials for arrive, and there is a need for more to be purchased. We are currently working with the local government to get better information so that we can become a part of this recovery effort.

Dozens of  people in the town of Chimizal have gotten sick since the hail storm, and contaminated water is the most likely culprit. A health team from the local government is in the process of getting water samples to find out the exact contaminants in the water, and once this information is available UMF will be coordinating with water engineers in Honduras to determine best way to improve filtration and support this community in gaining access to clean water.

Another immediate impact of this disaster is that the water sources in the towns of Chimizal and Quiscamote have been damaged, leaving very little water arriving to the towns. We are working to get water engineers to analyze the sources and propose ways to improve access.

There are both short and long-term effects of this storm on the coffee farms of the affected villages. Fortunately we were near the end of the harvest, but there were still large amounts of coffee lost when it was knocked from the trees and ruined. This means that many farmers lost 10-20% of this year’s income.

Looking long-term, there is both good news and bad news. The good news is that farms are still alive, which means the rebuilding process won’t require complete replanting, a process that would involve large investments and would leave farmers without a harvest for three full years. The bad news is that most farms will not have a harvest this coming year. This, combined with the low prices and loss of coffee during the storm, means that many farmers are sitting with little money saved and a greatly reduced income for the coming year. There are two major issues that this will create for the people of La Unión over the next two years.

First, farmer owners have been left without money to invest in their fields. It will be a two-year recuperation process, and there is currently no local access for money to facilitate this process.

Second, many people rely on day labor for the majority of their income. Since farm owners are not going to be able to fully farm their fields, the amount of work available for day laborers will be drastically reduced.

These issues may also lead to other, secondary effects. First, if farmers have no way to recuperate their fields and no access to work, there is a strong likelihood that they will have no choice but to sell property to feed their family. This would leave them with no means of producing income in the future. Second, disaster relief experts have expressed to UMF that, with the scarcity of work available, there is a high risk of mass migration out of these towns.. If a farmer cannot find work in his village, he will be forced to leave his family and look for work in other villages around La Unión, Honduras, or outside of the country. If this happens, it could have devastating effects on the villages and families in them.

We at UMF are working to put together a long-term plan to support these villages. We have spoken with community leaders in several affected villages, and will be spending time in the coming days speaking to community members to find out the best way to partner with them to address both short and long-term problems. Potential ideas that we have already discussed include:

·         Opening a new loan fund for affected farms that would last for several years, helping farmers bring their harvest to its pre-storm production.

·         Making solar dryer materials available as part of these long-term loans. Many solar dryers in these communities were destroyed, leaving farmers without the ability to properly process their coffee. Twelve farmers affected sold high-quality coffee to UMF this year—including Bernardo Ponce, Rigoberto Paz, Antonio Castellanos, Filadelfo Juarez, and others—and we want to ensure that they are able to produce high-quality coffee in the coming year, even if it is in much smaller amounts.

·         Starting family gardens to help provide food for families that are unable to earn enough money to provide proper nutrition for their families.

We will work to continue developing long-term solutions as we help address the immediate needs of these communities. We appreciate the thoughts, prayers, and help that our supporters have given and ask that you consider ways to get involved in supporting these communities in their time of need.

Hailstorm Hits the Communities of La Unión

This past week, a sunny afternoon turned tragic in La Unión as the most intense hailstorm in La Unión’s history fell down upon houses, inhabitants, and farms. Hail the size of lemons and oranges carried enough force to punch through tin roofs of homes. Many people were caught outside during the sudden onslaught of hail and sustained injuries. Thankfully, nobody was killed. Although the storm hit all of La Unión, there was one area of communities which sustained the largest amount of damage.

Hail punched holes through the roof
of a house in Chimizal

In the town of Chimizal, many families have moved temporarily into the school building because the storm left their houses uninhabitable.

Farms sustained significant damage during this event. In the areas most affected, any remaining harvest was destroyed and trees sustained heavy damage—trees were left without leaves and both trunks and branches were damaged by the impact of the hail. IHCAFE engineers are in the process of assessing the damage. Initial findings suggest that many trees were not killed in the incident, but there is doubt whether they will produce a harvest in the coming year.

UMF is joining the local La Unión government, IHCAFE, and other institutions in the area in a recovery effort both short and long term. We are still in the process of assessing damage that has occurred and creating a plan moving forward. We will give more information and developments as they are available, but ask that all reading this keep the people of La Unión in their thoughts and prayers.

Hail destroyed current harvest, stripped coffee plants
of their leaves, and left trunks and branches heavily damaged.
In background, banana trees and fences have been snapped
in half

A healthy coffee field near Chimizal before the hailstorm
(note: not the same field as above picture, but
included for comparison)

Small Farmer, Big Plans: Part Four

Continue reading the incredible story of our partner farmer, Antonio Ponce Bautista, in Fresh Cup Magazine:


In the fourth installment of this five-part series, big things are happening. Toñito's coffee is processed, roasted, and then cupped (evaluated at IHCAFE - the Instituto Hondureño del Café). His coffee receives very positive feedback and is selected to compete for the Honduran Cup of Excellence and SCAA's Coffee of the Year. Additionally, it is roasted and used by Josh Longsdorf, of Detroit's Anthology Coffee, at the North Central Barista Championship in Chicago.


However, Toñito's plans to export his specialty-grade coffee to the States are threatened by rain, road conditions, and other factors. Click here read more about this precarious journey...


For an introduction to the series, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0O0tjK3k8E

It's a Beautiful Thing.

Kids are always interesting to talk to. They’re honest to a fault, never too shy to point out things that we often choose to tactfully ignore.

I went to Spring Lake Wesleyan Church this past Sunday to talk to a group of kids about the upcoming auction. In our conversation, I asked the kids what Jesus said about how we should treat the poor. A little girl shouted out instantly, “Take from the rich and give to the poor!”

All of the adults in the room either chuckled or balked at the tiny blonde revolutionary in our midst, but perhaps she was tapping into one of those truths that children openly talk about and adults are more hesitant to breach.

It’s the idea of taking our excess and applying it in a more socially responsible way – not quite the extreme that my young audience member suggested, but of a similar vein. We live in a community that undoubtedly has felt the effect of the economic downturn, but we still have a little disposable capital we can choose to apply to extras – eating out, buying new electronics, seeing a movie. What the Heart for the World Auction does is provide a way for our community to purchase some really incredible extras, like a piece of art or a pie a month, and transfer that money directly to an organization that addresses a global issue.

This year, they chose us. And we are so, so excited.

It’s been a humbling experience seeing the community donate items to be auctioned. Some donations come from socially-minded organizations, while others come from creative individuals. Without knowing our partner farmers personally, members of our community are contributing directly to their success by donating these items.

We’ve been watching the list of auction items grow over the weeks, and each new item means new opportunities for development in La Unión – the opportunity for more microloans, community partnership programs, direct trade coffee sales, etc. The more our organization can grow and thrive, the more opportunities these farmers have for a just price for their hard work. It means individuals who come from generations of coffee farmers can feel like the quality of their coffee is finally being reflected in the purchasing price. It means families will be provided for. It means more community partnership programs that lead to clean water, sanitation, and education.

The whole process of preparing for the auction has been exciting, especially when we think about the farmers in Honduras and how they will benefit. We’re all looking forward to the event itself, this Saturday. It’s the next step in the process, another way members of our community can partner with the community of La Unión. It may not be exactly as that little girl described it on Sunday; we’re not taking from a group to give to another. But we are taking that excess we’re privileged to have and applying it to a program that supports those who don’t understand our idea of excess– in fact, sometimes quite the opposite. It’s a beautiful thing, really. And we’re honored to be part of it.

If you’d like to get involved in this event, contact us at info@unionmicrofinanza.com or visit the auction website: slwc.org/auction. You can buy tickets to the event at the door on the 24th - they're only $10!

Also, check out this video Spring Lake Wesleyan put together as an intro to our organization!

Heart for the World Auction

March 24, 2012

5-8 p.m.

Spring Lake Wesleyan Church

A Cup of Coffee with Filadelfo Juarez

The three of us stand outside his doorway, armed with a Chemex coffee maker, a scale, a blender, and Filadelfo Juarez’s Zingerman’s-roasted coffee tucked away in our bag. I’m with Patrick and Martir, members of the Unión MicroFinanza team in Honduras, and we’re about to have a cup of coffee with Filadelfo Juarez.

Filadelfo, or Fito, works for the public schools in the area of La Unión, Lempira, Honduras. He was an elementary teacher for eleven years and now holds an administrative position. He also grows coffee. Good coffee. He owns a small amount of land outside of town and harvests it during the school break. That means that during his vacation, he’s up at 5, kisses his wife and two young kids goodbye, piles coffee pickers into his truck, and drives up through the lush mountains to his fields. We are at his house to give him some of the coffee picked last year, roasted by Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

He invites us into his home, with simple concrete walls, humble furnishings, and a telenovela playing on the TV in the background. His two children run up to greet us. All shake hands, exchange greetings, and then we tell him why we’re here. We bought coffee from him last year, which means his hard work was rewarded with a fair price instead of the tragically low prices imposed on farmers here in Honduras. Moreover, his coffee was roasted and sold at a fantastic store in the United States, in Michigan.

That’s when we pull out the bag, the 12-ounce brightly colored Zingerman’s bag with Fito’s name written across the front label. His face lights up as he gingerly takes the bag from Patrick, runs his fingers across his name, and asks us in Spanish, “This is my coffee?” Farmers in Honduras usually don’t know where their coffee ends up in the world, let alone get to see it beautifully packaged with their own name right on the bag.

Fito’s grinning, and we are too.

He calls his wife over to look at his coffee and they both touch it, ask more questions about it. Where exactly is it sold? This is the coffee we sold you last year? Bags just like this are sold in Michigan? I mention how his coffee was actually the coffee of the month at Zingerman’s, and Patrick describes the sign in the store that says “Honduran Microlot: Filadelfo Juarez”. We decide to prepare some coffee then and there, and Fito has the honor of opening the bag. He tears it open with a knife and smells it, inhaling deeply. He passes it to his wife so she can smell it too, and then they scoop some out in a spoon for their little girl. She stands on her tiptoes to smell her dad’s roasted coffee. Still grinning, Fito says that it smells delicious. 

The coffee most Hondurans drink is called café de bolsa, or coffee in a bag. It’s pre-ground, very low quality, and devoid of flavor. This certainly doesn’t smell like café de bolsa. Fito asks us about the roasting, and we describe the process at Zingerman’s Coffee Company, the sophistication of the custom roaster, and the care with which they test and roast his coffee. Patrick translates the description on the bag: notes of tropical fruit, honeysuckle, and the bittersweet presence of grapefruit. Fito nods, agreeing that his land is known to produce a grapefruit flavor. My mouth begins to water.

We take out our equipment and start measuring the fresh coffee beans. We explain the process to Fito and his family as we run the beans through an old blender, our best replacement for a coffee grinder. His wife boils water on the stove in a tin pot, and when it’s ready, we pour it over the small mountain of Fito’s ground coffee in our Chemex. Everyone, everyone, leans in as the aroma drifts up from the Chemex. There are audible responses, and Fito and his wife exclaim in delight that it smells delicious.

As the last drops of coffee filter through, Fito’s wife washes out some small teacups. She asks us if we want to add sugar and we surprise her by politely declining. Café de bolsa is always prepared with a lot of sugar, either to drown out any mucky, bitter taste or make up for a lack thereof. We assure her she doesn’t need to add sugar to this coffee, and she pours it straight into the teacups.

Fito is first. He sips carefully and smiles, and then we give his wife the next cup. Our cups come next. I ask Fito what he thinks his coffee tastes like. Before he responds, his wife claims in surprise that the coffee isn’t bitter at all, that it’s remarkably smooth. We all agree. We acknowledge the floral hint of honeysuckle, giving the coffee a delicate sweetness. And then we turn to Fito for his response.

“Well, this isn’t café de bolsa.” Fito is chuckling, and we are too.

We stand around the kitchen, savoring what is surely the best coffee this household has ever had. We review the flavors, the grapefruit, the honeysuckle again, and over and over they mention how unbelievably smooth this coffee is. No sugar needed. We’ll leave the rest of the coffee with Fito, so he and his family can continue to smell it, drink it, display it, enjoy it. I’m glad I tucked his coffee into my suitcase the day before I left; seeing Fito and his family’s reaction to their own coffee, beautifully roasted and packaged and prepared, is a humbling experience.

We settle into the small patio outside, chatting as we sit on plastic chairs. Fito tells us about how he’s going back to work in a week and describes this year’s harvest. Instead of the gradual maturation of his coffee, all of it seems to have matured at once. While that means he gets to pick almost all of his coffee before returning to work, if rain comes in and delays coffee picking, his livelihood could be destroyed in a matter of days. The fragility of it all strikes me. It’s especially powerful to process while I’m sitting in Fito’s house, accepting coffee and fresh watermelon from his wife, watching his children play, realizing that much of this situation would be different and could be different due to a few days of rain, sun, or any other small and uncontrollable circumstance. Fito’s hopeful that the weather will hold out. He’s especially excited, too, because he claims that this year’s harvest is going to be even better than last year’s. I think of the amazing coffee we just shared with him and imagine the possibility.

I cannot wait for my next cup of coffee with Filadelfo Juarez. 

The first coffees of the Year

The first coffees of the year have come out of the solar dryers at the beneficio, and we couldn’t be more excited about the results! We recently cupped coffees from Pastor Bernardo Ponce and Antonio (Toñito) Ponce Bautista. Pastor Bernardo’s coffee scored an 85.5, with honey sweetness and a lemon acidity.

Toñito’s coffee score an 88.5. Regional IHCAFE cupping director Ramon Reyes cupped Toñito’s coffee and, without knowing the producer or that it was processed at UMF’s new beneficio, said “I need to send this coffee to San Pedro Sula to put it in front of the national Cup Of Excellence panel of judges. This coffee has a profile that I haven’t ever seen before in this region.” The profile of Toñito’s coffee included strawberries, bitter chocolate, lavender and cardamom. Mr. Reyes also requested another sample to enter into a Honduran coffee competition. If it does well enough in this competition, his coffee will get an automatic entry into the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Coffee of the Year competition. Last year two of the top 10 coffees in the world came out of Honduras, one of them from the same region as La Unión.

Other top scoring coffees thus far have been Rigoberto Paz, producing a coffee with a sweet tangerine flavor and honey sweetness; Sara Juarez, producing a coffee that tastes of an orange creamsicle with subtle notes of coffee blossom and milk chocolate; and Pablo Paz, producing a coffee that has notes of black tea, coffee berry, and dry wine.

We will be working diligently this week to cup coffees produced by Filadelfo Juarez, Francis Castillo, and a second lot by Pablo Paz. These three farmers produced some of the best coffees that came out of La Unión last year. Additionally, we will be cupping coffees from over a dozen farmers who are hoping to export their coffee for the first time ever, including Noe Amaya and other farmers enrolled in UMF’s microloan program.

Small Farmer, Big Plans: Part Three

Unión MicroFinanza continues the story of farmer Antonio Ponce Bautista in UMF's third Fresh Cup Magazine article.

In this installment of the five-part series, Tonito has high hopes for this year. He may have to contend with bad weather and muddy roads, but that doesn't hinder his plans for future harvests.

"Small Farmer, Big Plans: Part III" is published in Fresh Cup's February issue, and can be found online here: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/issue/53427/48

For an introduction to the series, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0O0tjK3k8E