The Florence Rotary Club Foundation will partner with Alltech on a project to aid the economic recovery of farm families in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
The foundation will sell Haitian-grown coffee through the Alltech Cafe Citadelle, one facet of the Kentucky-based company’s Sustainable Haiti Project. Proceeds will support Florence Rotary community projects and coffee growers in Haiti.
“We wanted to put something sustainable back into Haiti – not just a check to the government for short-term aid,” said Matt Mathis, product development coordinator for the Alltech Café Citadelle. “We’re putting Haitians to work.”
The coffee production project is one facet of the Alltech Sustainable Haiti Project, Mathis told members of the Florence Rotary Club at a meeting on Monday, August 1. Alltech also took over renovation, maintenance and salaries at a school in Quanaminthe. And, Alltech and the University of Kentucky formed the Haitian Harmony children’s choir in the village to draw attention to the ongoing plight of the people of Haiti.
Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, has struggled to recover from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in January 2010. More than 200,000 people were killed and more than 300,000 others injured.
“Disease, famine and poverty are everywhere,” Mathis said.
The Sustainable Haiti Project is the brainchild of Dr. Pearse Lyons, the founder of Alltech. The Nicholasville company, which produces animal nutrition and feed supplements, has 2,300 employees and bioscience centers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Thailand. The company sponsored the FEI World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2010.
Lyons went to Haiti to assist with relief efforts following the earthquake. He soon shifted his focus from raising funds to provide short-term relief for earthquake victims to creating sustainable businesses that create jobs, according to Mathis.
“You can’t believe how some of those people are living,” he said. “They don’t like handouts … They like hand-ups.”
Alltech works with a Fair Trade Certified coffee cooperative in north central Haiti that represents 6,700 farm families. Alltech imports the green, hand-picked 100% Arabica coffee and Lexington Coffee & Tea roasts it. The coffee is available online at AlltechCafeCitadelle.com and through service organizations such as the Rotary Club.
Alltech created a charitable foundation to support the Sustainable Haiti Project. None of the profits go into Alltech, said Mathis, who noted that the company pays his salary – not the foundation.
The Florence Rotary Foundation will receive a share of the proceeds from the sale of the coffee for local charitable projects. The remainder will go directly to Haiti.
“Everybody wins (in this partnership) – both Haitians and Rotarians,” Mathis said. “All our profits will be reinvested in growing the cooperatives and sustaining the coffee production. Most of the money will go directly to families growing the coffee.”
For information about the weekly meetings, guest speakers, and community service opportunities of the Florence Rotary Club, contact Pat Moynahan, president at amoynahan@insightbb.com or 859-802-0242.
Visit the group’s website at www.florencerotary.org. Florence Rotary meets weekly on Mondays at noon at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Florence.
Article submitted by Pat Moynahan.
