June 23, 2008 // Franchising.com // Profits raised from Costa Coffee's inaugural National Foundation Day, held over the weekend in its 700 UK stores, are being donated to the Costa Foundation today. The registered charity was set up by the UK's largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain in 2006 to help to build schools and improve the lives of coffee growing communities around the world.
Costa customers helped to raise £150,000 on Saturday 14 June which will now help build three new schools in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Uganda, making a tangible difference to coffee farmers and their communities.
Costa Coffee Marketing Director and Costa Foundation Trustee, David Hutchinson says,
"We wanted to give something back to the communities where we source our coffee and local farmers have specifically told us that the best way Costa can help is by focusing on education through building schools for their children.
"Our first Foundation Day was a huge success with customers across the country supporting us simply by buying their regular coffee at our stores. We are hoping to continue to run Costa Foundation Day on an annual basis to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to coffee growing farmers."
Since 2006, the Costa Foundation has improved sanitation, developed land for families to grow crops, built teacher accommodation and built four schools in Colombia, Uganda and Ethiopia. Click here to view a moving three-minute video about the Costa Foundation's project with Anatoli School, La Mesa, Colombia.
Costa also recently announced a partnership with the Rainforest Alliance, making it the first UK coffee shop chain to commit to sourcing Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee. The Rainforest Alliance programme helps farms to achieve efficient farm management, cost savings and increased production and coffee quality through improving worker housing, reducing pesticide use, improving worker safety, and access to clean water, education and medical care.
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