BuyWell International and Fellowship Bible Church are teaming up to host an International Coffee Tour on Saturday March 29th at 7pm in the FBC auditorium. The evening will include coffee tasting of Artisan Fair Trade single-origin coffees from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Sumatra, Peru and Ethiopia, and the Colorado Springs premier screening of the award-winning documentary Black Gold about the international coffee industry.
Black Gold is a 77 minute documentary focused on the injustices of the international coffee industry and on the coffee farmers of Ethiopia who make pennies on the pound while western consumers pay four dollars for a latte. The movie received the Best Achievement Award at the 2007 British Independent Film Awards. Corina Chocano of the LA Times called the movie “...a story as riveting and jaw-dropping as anything currently starring Leonardo DiCaprio.” Janice Page of the Boston Globe stated “This passionate little film is here to convince you that educated consumers can decide who wins.”
BuyWell International is a Colorado Springs wholesale coffee roaster founded last year by students from Colorado College who wanted to do something positive about world poverty by offering Fair Trade Artisan coffee at a price that was competitive with standard gourmet coffee. Fair Trade offers coffee farmers a fair living wage for their product that is often five times above the pennies per pound paid by the major coffee retailers. BuyWell was born out of a late-night dorm debate about the effects of globalization on the third world. At sunrise the next morning company founders Jess Arnsteen and Kyle Cureau decided nothing could be done to stop globalization, but something could be done to help the coffee farming families around the world. Arnsteen is a graduate of Cheyenne Mountain High School. BuyWell started shipping their first product in October of last year and BuyWell Fair Trade coffee is now available at several local retail outlets and can be ordered online.
The Fellowship Bible Church Café International, located at 5580 N. Nevada Ave, was one of the first local organizations to offer BuyWell Fair Trade coffee products and is using the coffee sale proceeds to sponsor college educational scholarships for four students from a Fair Trade coffee farming community in Guatemala.
Tickets will be available at the door for coffee tasting and premier movie screening on March 29th. The suggested donation for tickets is $5.00 with all proceeds going to the Guatemala Coffee Scholarship program. Seating is limited and must be reserved in advance online at www.fbccs.org/blackgold. For more information about the movie, visit www.blackgoldmovie.com. For more information about BuyWell International Fair Trade coffee visit www.buywell.org.