The women who grow and process the world’s coffee and cacao do much of the work and see a fraction of the recognition. This October, a coalition of coffee and cacao companies is setting out to change that, one story at a time.

Raise Your Cup launches on October 1, International Coffee Day, and runs through October 15, International Day of Rural Women, in the year the United Nations has named the International Year of the Woman Farmer. Each day, the campaign shares the story of a woman who farms coffee or cacao, told in her own words, in English and her own language. Some own their farms. Many are part of the often-unseen workforce of women who plant, pick, sort, and sustain them.

Each story is paired with the partner company working alongside her, so the story of the work and the story of the partnership are told together.

“All coffee is women’s coffee. All cocoa is women’s cocoa. Our work is to recognize the women whose labor has stayed invisible for too long — and to back that recognition with real investment in the plans they’ve built for themselves.”
~ Kimberly Easson, Founder & CEO, Equal Origins

Why now

Closing gender gaps in agrifood systems could add nearly $1 trillion to the global economy and reduce food insecurity for 45 million people, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The stories are here, the partnerships are here, and October gives them a stage.

Beyond recognition: the Origin Fund

Raise Your Cup is also raising at least $15,000 for the Origin Fund, supporting three Equal Origins partner organizations: a coffee organization and a cocoa organization in Colombia, and a coffee organization in Honduras. Each has built its own Gender Equity Development Plan, and every dollar goes toward advancing plans like these, as defined by the organizations themselves.

Join the launch. Thursday, October 1, at 12:00 noon ET: 30 minutes on Zoom, with farmers, roasters, importers, and coffee and chocolate lovers raising their cups together. Join the launch →

How to take part

• Follow the stories at equalorigins.org/raiseyourcup, a new woman’s story each day, October 1–15.
• Host an activation at your café, office, or community space. It can be as simple as a team toast.
  Find activation guides
• Support the Origin Fund through Givebutter.
• Raise your cup. Tell us why. Bring two more. Share it with #RaiseYourCup.

Raise Your Cup is a Kindred Sparks campaign, cultivated by Equal Origins and made possible by its sponsors: Café Moto, The Coffee Quality Institute, Rich’s Foundation, Neumann Gruppe USA, Peet’s Coffee, Allegro Coffee, Westrock Coffee, Ascension Coffee, Stumptown Coffee, CORUS, Inspire Brands, Guittard, Bent Barn Studio, and T. Cross Branding + Consulting.

Recognize, Uplift, Invest in the women who farm the coffee and cocoa we all depend on.