SEATTLE — It's a Sunday-morning staple, something to sip during chats with fellow churchgoers after listening to hymns and sermons about serving a higher purpose.
But today, coffee itself is playing a larger role in churches' commitment to social justice. More churches are buying organic, "fair-trade" and "shade-grown" gourmet coffee, with profits benefiting environmental and social causes that are in step with congregations' faith-based values.
Independent companies that specialize in selling such coffee are increasingly turning to churches, synagogues and other places of worship, tapping into an audience that is likely to be receptive to an altruistic sales pitch.
"It's a natural marriage," said Dan Olmstead, co-owner of Poverty Bay Coffee in Auburn, Wash., which last year began selling its shade-grown coffee to St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Bellevue, Wash., and has since landed three more churches as customers.
"They're there to try to find ways to make a tangible difference, and when you can (make a difference) in the natural course of buying things you need, everybody wins," Olmstead said.
Equal Exchange, a coffee company based in Canton, Mass., buys its beans directly from farmers in the developing world and says sales through its Interfaith Coffee Program have jumped 50 percent in the past year to about $810,000 in 2001. The 4-year-old program has grown to include 3,800 congregations of various denominations and religions, including 155 in Washington state.
"There's a really strong link in communities of faith around social-justice issues," said Erbin Crowell, coordinator of Equal Exchange's interfaith program.
Among the array of so-called "coffees with a conscience" are fair-trade certified, organic and shade-grown. With fair-trade coffee, a third party certifies that coffee beans are bought from indigenous farmers for a fair, set price — right now, it's a minimum of $1.26 a pound. The fair-trade movement has gathered momentum this year as world coffee prices have plummeted below 50 cents a pound, worsening the living conditions of many farmers as plantations have shed jobs and cut wages.
Organic and shade-grown coffees have a more environmental focus. Organic farmers avoid use of pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals. With shade-grown farming, taller trees protect the coffee plants, enrich the soil and provide a habitat for migratory birds.
All of those causes appeal to Rev. Leroy Hedman of South Seattle's Georgetown Gospel Chapel, who said his church became an Equal Exchange customer earlier this year because "we believe in justice and empowerment."
At another Equal Exchange customer, Temple Beth Am in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood, Rabbi Jonathan Singer delivered a sermon on Yom Kippur in September that singled out buying fair-trade coffee as a way to combat injustice.
"It fit in very well with the message he wanted to deliver on Yom Kippur: We should not willingly support the oppression of others," said Temple Beth Am member Allan Paulson, who serves on the temple's social-action committee and has worked to bring fair-trade coffee to the temple.
Fair-trade, organic and shade-grown coffees generally run somewhere between $8 and $12 a pound, though many churches are considered wholesale customers and receive discounts. While more expensive than the canned coffee that still represents the majority of U.S. coffee sales, it's comparable in price to the products offered by major specialty coffee chains, some of whom sell their own fair-trade and organic blends.