OUR COFFEE KIDS STORY:
Since 2008, after seeing the needs of coffee-growing families from coffee/cocoa origin trips, I adopted an orphanage in Sonsonate, El Salvador (Hogar Immaculado Corazon de Maria), and since 2008 have done annual fundraisers with the support of MARS Drinks (now LavAzza) associates for this orphanage (bike races, triathlons, and talent shows). Every year we bring the proceeds to Hogar Immaculado Corazon de Maria to help support the education and supply needs of their 55+ orphans and 200+ students. In fact, in 2014 we built a digital Skype classroom with support from Microsoft. MARS Incorporated recognized this effort as a global recipient of the bi-annual MAKE THE DIFFERENCE program in the PEOPLE in the Community category. In 2015, 9 ambassadors from the MARS Ambassador Program (now called the LavAzza Global Ambassador Program) helped fundraise to build a kitchen and laundry at the orphanage.
In 2016, another team of associates went to El Salvador again and as part of this trip fundraising efforts were established to help get a new van for the 250+ kids at Hogar Immaculado Corazon de Maria. To help support this effort, 2015 participants and 2016 participants set up fundraisers around the world and with the amazing support of our friends at the COEX Foundation in El Salvador we were able to deliver the orphanage the much-needed van. The 2016 Ambassadors asked some of the children what the orphanage needed most, and to our surprise, they said, "we need consistent clean water." So in 2017 a new group of 7 Ambassadors, my daughter Gianna LaRusso along with the support of the 2015 and 2016 ambassadors, our friends and family who have supported us in the past, and our friends at the COEX Foundation set another ambitious goal to turn on a sustainable water solution for the orphanage. The funds raised in 2017 helped drill an appropriate well and find the much-needed pumping system for the entire orphanage and school. The 2018 campaign helped drill an additional 40 feet (beyond the 60 feet already completed) to help hit a sustainable/quality water solution. We hit water and finished this project in Fall 2018.
In 2019, we fundraised for much-needed improvements in their garden where Mother Ursula grows coffee, cocoa, and food used by the orphanage to feed the children, and a new computer classroom with 13 new computers that were much needed for these coffee kids to help them with their future.
In 2020-2021 we were originally focused on the need for high school juniors and seniors to help them become LIFE READY with English Classes and Professional Education. Then the COVID-19 Pandemic hit, and it affected El Salvador even more than the countries we live in. So a group of over 100 friends and family of Lavazza rallied together along with friends at the Society For Hospitality & Foodservice Management, former #lavazza Global Ambassadors, and especially the Lavazza Foundation (https://fondazionelavazza.com/en/) to help us hit and exceed our fundraising goal for 2020/2021 to help 52 children and 6 teachers at an orphanage we support in the coffee-growing country of El Salvador that have been affected by this pandemic. Working with our partners at coffee origin we provided the funds needed to provide these children (many of whom we have watched live at previous graduations over the last 12 years) with mobile devices to be able to receive and submit school work and communicate with their teachers remotely. THANKS FOR GIVING to all our partner participants for all these fundraising efforts!
In 2022 with the Pandemic NOT OVER, we focused on emergency relief for the support of the basics of food, healthcare needs, and utilities/shelter support. 100% of the 2022 fundraiser focused on these basic needs.
For 2023-2024, our project was for the cultivation of vegetables, coffee & other fruit trees, a new Tilapia fish farm, and a barista training school for coffee kids. The Hogar Immaculado owns a 3-acre property which is currently cultivated with fruit trees, ornamental trees, and medicinal plants. The Hogar Immaculado also has an ideal location on another coffee farm to build a coffee school. The garden will improve the nutritional program for the children in the home and in the school. It is thought to cultivate vegetables, coffee & fruit, and fish farm during the entire year. At this moment we have the infrastructure of the tanks for the fish farming and the land has been prepared with organic soil and plantations of coffee and cacao. We also have a location for a barista coffee school for coffee kids.
EMERGENCY NEED:
Recently Mother Ursula from the orphanage sent the attached letter asking for much-needed funds ($4000) to help to fix the water well we helped build in 2017. The purpose of the letter is a request for valuable assistance for problems with the orphanage's water supply. This is because the submersible pump in the well is damaged, and the pipes are also damaged which supply the water to the entire orphanage and the school.
