Rebecca’s Day on the Farm
Our group coordinator, Rebecca, recently spent a morning working alongside the women of San Lázaro Coffee. What she thought would be just a few hours of helping with farm chores turned into something much deeper: a lesson in resilience, dignity, and the human strength behind every cup of coffee.
A Morning That Changed My Coffee Forever
“I recently had the privilege of traveling to Honduras with a group from my church. One morning, we volunteered on the San Lázaro coffee farm. It was only three or four hours—hardly a full day—but those hours changed how I’ll look at my morning coffee forever.
We began at sunrise, joining the women for their daily devotional. Their voices carried through the cool mountain air, full of joy and gratitude. Then, without hesitation, they picked up their tools and set off up the steep mountainside. We followed.
They showed us how to clear leaves from the base of each coffee tree, how to scoop organic fertilizer from 70-pound sacks, and how to spread it carefully around the plants. It sounded simple enough. It wasn’t.
Coffee doesn’t grow on flat ground—it clings to the sides of rugged hills. Within an hour, my legs burned from climbing, my back ached from bending, and my arms shook from hauling. By lunchtime, we were completely spent. But the women? They just smiled, laughed with one another, and kept working as if the mountain itself had made them strong.
The Cost Behind Every Cup
Later, I learned that Carmen, the oldest woman on the farm, walks two hours each way—every single day—to do this work.
I had always bought San Lázaro coffee because I believed in what they stood for: empowering women, paying a living wage, valuing dignity over profit. But until that morning, I never truly understood the cost of my coffee—the relentless cycle of pruning, clearing, fertilizing, harvesting, drying, roasting. It’s backbreaking, year-round labor. And it’s done by women who rise long before I wake up, so that I can enjoy a single, perfect cup.
More Than Coffee
Now, every time I brew my morning coffee, I see Carmen’s face. I hear the laughter echoing on that mountainside. And I feel grateful—not just for the coffee, but for the women whose strength and dignity make it possible.
San Lázaro coffee isn’t just coffee. It’s perseverance. It’s hope. It’s dignity in a cup.”
Experience the Difference Yourself
When you choose San Lázaro Coffee, you’re not only enjoying a specialty cup—you’re standing with the women whose strength, joy, and resilience make it possible.