Pluma Hidalgo

Disability inclusive coffee for all

The Lucy Foundation’s model shows the value of diversity in business. We work with communities to establish their social, economic and environmental needs, before working together to calculate how we can collaboratively meet these needs through sustainable trade.

In 2016, The Lucy Foundation established a team on the ground in Pluma Hidalgo – an isolated coffee-farming village, high in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. The aim of the Pluma Coffee Project is to transform the global coffee industry by developing a sustainable value chain of coffee that is not only good for the environment, the community, and the economy, but is also inclusive of disabled people, from farmer to consumer.

Since establishing a team on the ground The Lucy Foundation has successfully:

• Hosted monthly inclusive and accessible agricultural workshops with coffee-farming families and the wider community;
• Created thousands of litres of organic bio-fertiliser and organic insect and disease treatment made for crops;
• Helped develop a local barista training program (also delivered in sign language);
• Set up beehives to increase coffee quality through pollination and as additional income for the families;
• Supported five disabled people and their families into paid, part-time contract work;
• Launched Pluma coffee in New Zealand;
• Increased the quantity of Pluma products in New Zealand by 2700%.

So why coffee? Coffee is a good source of seasonal income for farmers in this remote region of Mexico where poverty is high. Pluma coffee is exclusively grown in Pluma Hidalgo, Mexico and is new to coffee drinkers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Coffee is the economic backbone of Pluma Hidalgo with many families having a small number of trees in their backyard. We work side-by-side with these coffee farmers and their families to help improve their crops and promote inclusive economic opportunities within the community.