Heifer International received $750,000 from the Starbucks Foundation to help fund the Mbozi Farmer Livelihood Improvement Project in Tanzania, which will help improve livelihoods and quality of life for smallholder coffee growing communities in the East African country. As much as 90 percent of the population in the Mbozi District is engaged in coffee farming.
The project is part of Starbuck’s East Africa Dairy Development Project to assist at least 5,000 smallholder coffee farmers and their families.
Heifer and Starbucks have collaborated in the past. In 2009, after Starbucks c.e.o. Howard Schultz visited smallholder coffee farmers in Rwanda, he heard the heartfelt requests from farmers that, if they had cows, they would have milk, better nutrition and income for their families. Starbucks employees rallied to provide the cows these farmers wanted so desperately. Watch the inspiring video here.
"Adding dairy farming will ensure coffee farmers have a steady flow of income to reinvest into their coffee farms," said Heifer's president and chief executive Pierre Ferrari. "By introducing higher and steadier income levels from dairy, coffee farmers will actually have increased capital to invest in physical inputs and new technology to increase coffee production."