Last week, we had the extraordinary pleasure of visiting with longtime friend, Ricardo Zelaya and his daughter, Melissa, both in Shawnigan Lake and at our cafe in Vancouver.

While on the island, we took the Zelayas and the powerhouse importer, Billy, from Common Goal Coffee, over to Shawnigan Lake School to show them where their coffee has been served with pride by Chef Dustin Setso and the culinary team for over 4 years. Needless to say, our trio of family businesses is grateful that Shawnigan Lake School lives the values they teach - prioritizing local small businesses and long relationships and expressing the highest possible standards across campus, everywhere from the classrooms to the coffee kiosks.

In Vancouver, it was a lovely full circle moment to have Ricardo back on the corner of Main & 20th, where we have served his coffee since 2007. Over beers in the sunshine, Ricardo talked me through developments on his farms in Guatemala, including clever innovations with irrigation to manage a changing climate, getting ahead of the ongoing threat of Roya, coffee rust disease, and rebuilding Hacienda Carmona, a farm that has been in the Zelaya family for over 100 years.

Most impactfully, in the cafe, Ricardo was pleased to see our feature of the Santa Clara Scholarship Program, a program he started in 2012 to offer meaningful educational opportunities to the children of his employees. The Foglifter community has supported eight individual students since 2017, some continuously, some intermittently as their ability to attend allows. This is the first time we have had the honour of Ricardo providing on the fly updates on each of them. We look forward to sharing these with you in the coming weeks. Our annual contribution is locked in thanks to all the work Melissa and older sister, Bel, have done to keep the program flourishing year after year.

Thanks to our pals at Bean Around the World, who introduced Ricardo's coffee to Canada almost 20 years ago, we have been so fortunate to have an ongoing, very meaningful, very rewarding relationship that will continue for many years to come. We are so thrilled you love the Zelaya family coffees as much as we do.

Gracias, Ricardo, Melissa, and family for taking the time!

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