RSR at 10: Loving your coffee neighbors

My introduction to coffee roasting as a hobby happened in a Mennonite community in Harrisonburg VA, where I spent 4 years doing graduate studies in Theology & Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. As mentioned in an earlier post, the first person I bought green/unroasted coffee from was a Mennonite pastor. 

Having spent my entire life as a Christian, particularly with groups like Mennonites, I’m of course very familiar with one of the primary commandments that Jesus handed over: “Love your neighbor as yourself” - and I’ve tried to take that fairly seriously in practice.

Coffee is a major global industry based on an agricultural product that grows only in tropical climates around the globe. Coffee around the world is predominantly produced by the work of human hands.Many hands, to be precise. People with lives, families, joys & sorrows, etc. 

On the roasting & brewing side of coffee here in the US, it’s been my experience that the humans in the Specialty Coffee industry are pretty awesome folks. When I started RSR, I had zero prior experience in the industry so I had to catch up quickly as the business was getting started. There were a few industry veterans at the time who were very generous with their wisdom to this first-timer. 

Finally, our fans and customers at RSR have only proven the rule that it’s the people that help make Specialty Coffee so special. The multi-year investment that our customers have made through their purchases of our coffee has sustained not only RSR as a business but also the network of human hands that brought those coffees to RSR’s doorstep in the first place. 

It’s not a perfect picture: Wealth disparities are a feature of global capitalism and even the Specialty Coffee market is not immune to perpetuating those imbalances that directly affect the wellbeing of the people that produce most of our coffees. But given the circumstances, we strive to do as good as we can.