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Caffeinated sustainability
12/3/2008 11:51:08 AM
By Josh Johnson
Splash Staff Writer
Profiles:
Dominion Trading Co.
Crippled with polio, the 20-something Ethiopian woman crawled to work on her hands and knees each day. Covering about a kilometer each hour, she scraped through the jungle because the road was harder on her body. When it was time to call it a day, she strong-armed the two hours back home.
Tsehaynish (pronounced SUH-HI-NESH) had to work. Her mother had died, and her father didn't make enough to support her. She worked picking up beans that fell under drying tables at a local coffee processing plant.
That's where Liberty Lake resident Mike Stemm first saw her in November 2006.
"For me, it wasn't so much her condition that stood out; it was her radiant smile," he said. "She was just so delighted to be able to have a job and to be productive. As we asked more about her, we found out about her condition, and we said to ourselves, ‘Here's an opportunity for us to help her.'"
‘An opportunity to help'
Submitted photos
Above, Craig Meredith, left, and Mike Stemm met Tsehaynish in November 2006. Below, the countryside of Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe region.
Splash map graphic
Dominion Trading's coffee plant is located in Yirgacheffe, in the heart of Ethiopia's
Rift Valley.
Stemm, 63, wasn't in a position to help her seven years ago, when he was a driven Kaiser Aluminum executive who had logged 30 years with the company. But shortly after returning from a two-week mission trip to Ethiopia, he quit his job.
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"Everyone I take, myself included, comes back changed," said Stemm, who now travels to Ethiopia about three times a year and just returned from a trip in mid-November. "You see life, you see the world in a different perspective, and you realize how much you take for granted."
Early on, Stemm found a like-mind in Craig Meredith, who lives on the Idaho side of the state line down the mountain from Stemm's Green Ridge home. The men were determined to make a lasting impact in Ethiopia, but they were troubled by many of the efforts they saw in the name of charity.
"One of the things different people have a tough time understanding is that Americans are very good at giving away their money, but they don't realize the dependency that creates," said Meredith, 46, a partner in an engineering consulting business. "What we want to do is create business opportunities."
Calling for a "new model of sustainability," the men started in 2001 the New Covenant Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at accomplishing their goals of community and economic development in Ethiopia and empowering Ethiopians to be self-sufficient.
But the pair wanted a reliable funding source that could drive New Covenant's initiatives instead of relying on the prevailing whims of a donor or handout. They asked their Ethiopian partners for ideas to create a business engine in Ethiopia that would help fund the New Covenant Foundation.
Well, came the reply, how do you like your coffee?
The business of coffee
Coffee was born in the 10th century in the highlands of Ethiopia, but Meredith and Stemm didn't know that five years ago. At the time, Meredith didn't drink coffee. Stemm drank it on a limited basis.
Today, "I'm a coffee snob," Meredith said. "If this business were to fold, I'd have to buy green coffee and roast it myself."
On the advice of Ethiopians, Meredith and Stemm started and funded Dominion Trading Co., which is owned and operated by Ethiopians. The men continue to help finance the venture and market the coffee in America.
"Coffee consumers today want to be involved in social responsibility," Stemm said. "We are a company that can link the consumer back to the grower."
The Ethiopian plant purchases its coffee from a co-op of 1,500 growers in the Yirgacheffe area of Ethiopia's Rift Valley. The growers, Stemm and Meredith said, are paid above fair trade requirements and have a profit-sharing plan for the coffee.
The green - or unroasted - coffee is exported to the Port of Tacoma in 40,000-pound containers, taking six weeks to arrive. From there, it is held in a storage facility in Sumner, Wash., and distributed to roasters.
Stemm and Meredith run one of those roasters, Cable Creek Coffee Roasting in Post Falls. Cable Creek roasts exclusively for Dominion Trading Co., allowing the company to sell roasted coffee directly or provide it to local vendors.
New Covenant initiatives
Stemm and Meredith set up the New Covenant Foundation to focus on seven initiatives: church planting, health, education, personal assistance, finance, innovation and marketing.
"The first four make up the community development aspect, and the last three make up the economic development component," Stemm said.
Coffee, in large part, funds these initiatives that, for example, promote health education to an estimated 1 million Ethiopians through an agreement with LifeWind International. The partnership with New Covenant has become LifeWind's most successful chain program anywhere, Stemm and Meredith said.
The New Covenant Foundation also supports local church planters (as opposed to sending foreign missionaries), orphanages, schools, workforce training programs, developing new technologies and providing loans.
Teresa Laher, an adoptive mother of two Ethiopian children, volunteers with Dominion Trading Co. and the New Covenant Foundation. The Spokane resident joined Stemm on the recent visit to the country.
"I believe there comes a point in your life where you can talk about things, but there comes a call to action," she said. "I don't think any of us born here in America or the Western world have been born here by accident. I think there's a responsibility to the greater community at large to help."
Tsehaynish today
Tsehaynish, the young woman with polio, is employed at the coffee plant that supplies Dominion Trading Co. Through their interactions with the young woman, Stemm and Meredith realized the initiatives of New Covenant Foundation could come to her aid.
The Foundation arranged for her to have surgery at a hospital six hours away by bus. A physician from the States fused her knees so she can walk upright with crutches and operated on her hips to allow her to straighten her body at the waist.
After three months in recovery, Stemm said the beaming Tsehaynish was welcomed home like a hero. Today, she continues to work at the drying tables she once crawled under, and she is now a supervisor at the plant, which employs about 200 Ethiopians. The guards built her a small home under the guard shack so she doesn't have to worry about the commute with crutches.
"Her life has changed; she has hope, but she is using it to help others," Stemm said. "The hope that she has is now contagious."
For links to the New Covenant Foundation, Dominion Trading Co. and a video of Tsehaynish, visit The Splash blog at www.libertylakesplash.com.
"Have a cup"
· Online at www.dominiontrading.com
· Rosauers supermarkets, under the label "4 Seasons Community Coffee"
· The Service Station, 9315 N. Nevada, Spokane
· Moon Dollars Coffee House, 609 Syringa St., Post Falls
· At various local churches and sold as fundraisers
Profiles:
Dominion Trading Co.
Information on the men behind Dominion Trading, Mike Stemm and Craig Meredith:
Age
Mike: 63; Craig: 46
Birthplace
Both in Spokane
Families
Mike: wife, Vickie; sons, Eric and Chad; 10 grandchildren
Craig: wife, Margaret; children, Rebecca, Ian and Angus
Favorite thing about Ethiopia
Mike: Their smiles, their worship and the lush hillsides of Yirgacheffe
Craig: Their smiles and the wilderness
How do you take your coffee?
Mike: Half Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and half Sidamo decaf black; or as a vanilla latte
Craig: Double shot latte in 8 ounces of steamed milk. No flavor or sugar. And of course I use Molla, our own espresso blend
Favorite quote
Mike: "We are created for significance."
Craig: "I need duct tape." - MacGyver
Favorite passage of Scripture
Mike: Proverbs 3:5-6
Craig: Philippians 2:1-16
Web sites
www.dominiontrading.com
www.newcovenantfoundation.org
"Have a cup"
Dominion Trading Co. coffee is found:
· Online at www.dominiontrading.com
· Rosauers supermarkets, under the label "4 Seasons Community Coffee"
· The Service Station, 9315 N. Nevada, Spokane
· Moon Dollars Coffee House, 609 Syringa St., Post Falls
· At various local churches and sold as fundraisers