Gender and Coffee with Kimberly Easson

To start our food month we will be looking at the role gender plays in agriculture, specifically looking at gender equity among coffee and cacao farms.

Kimberly Easson, founder and CEO of The Partnership for Gender Equity (Equal Origins) will be speaking about her life long work in sustainable development within the coffee sector. We are thrilled to have such an inspirational leader come speak with us. Get ready to become a more educated coffee drinker!

Here is a little bit of information about PGE and Kimberly's work:

"The vision of the Partnership for Gender Equity (PGE) is for a coffee value chain that works for everyone – meaning healthy households; empowered women, youth, and families; vibrant communities; and sustainable supply to meet the demands of a growing industry. PGE is building a global movement to catalyze the coffee industry toward improving gender equity as a means to enhance the well-being of farming families, communities, and the sector overall. The coffee industry had not seriously regarded gender inequities to be a concern until PGE brought them to light in its 2015 report The Way Forward: Accelerating Gender Equity in the Coffee Value Chain. Since then, there has been a significant shift in awareness about the importance of gender equity in the coffee sector. In August, JAB Holding and Keurig Dr. Pepper announced their commitment to gender equality in their supply chains. Due in part to PGE’s efforts, coffee sustainability programs developed by leading companies such as Starbucks, JDE, Nestle, Lavazza and Illy now include gender as a key focus, and a growing number of companies promote “women’s coffee”. At the same time, the knowledge gap about how to address the issue hinders real progress toward achieving greater gender equity in the sector. This presents a significant opportunity for PGE to lead the sector in closing this gap and fostering real change. PGE is a valuable resource on the topic of gender equity in coffee. It has built a strong network of allies and developed a practical set of tools for buyers and producer organizations to effect positive change. In the next three years, PGE plans to drive widespread adoption of these tools for transformative impact across the sector."

To help give some background on gender in coffee here is a link to a wonderful documentary: https://www.genderincoffeedoc.com/