|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
November 15, 2005Coffee for water? You can helpLAKE LEELANAU - Chris and Jody Treter make their living importing coffee from Mexico to northern Michigan.Now the couple wants northern Michigan to help Mexico find some water. The Treters and other Leelanau County businesses and individuals launched a fundraising drive to raise $8,000 to build a gravity-fed water system for a village in Chiapas, Mexico. The village, in an area where the Treters frequently travel to buy coffee beans for their business, Higher Grounds Trading Company, currently has no direct access to clean water, the couple said. "Every time we go back to the community and ask what the greatest need is, it's always water," Chris Treter said. Water in the Mayan village, called Winikton, is carried in by hand, a task that takes more than an hour each trip. "It's mostly the women's role to collect water," Jody Treter said. "The girls would be able to go to school if they had water. All the women will tell you, if they had water, their days would be completely changed." A social conscience is part of the Treter's business strategy. The coffee importers buy coffee beans from growers in Chiapas at a "fair trade" price, or well above market value, and sell the coffee to grocery stores, restaurants and individuals, primarily in Michigan but also around the country. More information will be available tonight, at Kejara's Bridge in Lake Leelanau, where a movie called "Water and Autonomy" will be screened after 6 p.m. On Nov. 20 at 5:30 p.m. the group will host a pot luck at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Suttons Bay. [an error occurred while processing this directive] |