Rogers Charitable Fund

The Rogers Family Foundation is the nonprofit charitable part of the Rogers Family Company, the parent company to San Francisco Bay Coffee, which is a family business owned by Jon Rogers.

Aside from providing the very best coffee at the very best price, another part of the mission statement is:

“To improve quality of life by supplying food, clothing, shelter and education to everyone who has contact with our coffee; from the families who produce the coffee to the families of our customers and the societies in which they live. To educate and assist all these families in their efforts of respecting nature and preserving the natural beauty of the world we live in.”

RFC does this in their coffee communities by: • Assisting with the basic needs of life. • Ensuring health care is improved and maintained. • Breaking the cycle of poverty with direct support of educational and nutritional programs. • Practicing and teaching environmental responsibility and sustainability.

To organize this, the Community Aid Program was established more than 20 years ago. The Rogers Family Company donates between $1,000,000 and $1,500,000 each year to the Charitable Foundation, depending on profitability. The RCF then administers programs in the source countries where they buy coffee, and elsewhere.This program provides the following for farmers, workers, and their families: • The building of housing and sanitation facilities, • The building and funding of schools for children and adult education, • The building of kitchens and meal facilities, and establishing ongoing meal programs • The building of medical and dental facilities, and the provision of ongoing programs, including doctors, nurses, dentists, etc. • Education and implementation of Sustainable and Ecologically friendly farming and living practices.

The program is multi-tiered -- first, RFC finds farmers and small farmer groups who have top quality speciality grade coffees. Next, RFC offers a cost of production plus a profit to the farmer to ensure stability in a very unstable market -Finally, RFC works with those farmers to: • Improve the quality of life of everyone on the farm, and • Promote organic and sustainable farming practices and ecological improvements.

This approach goes beyond a simplistic goal of increasing the price a farmer will be paid for his coffee. Through technical assistance, efforts are made to increase quality and yield. Educational programs teach the small farmers how to improve their production, how to make and manage money, and how to improve the conditions in their communities.

It is here you become valuable as we know that " boots on the ground" are the only way to ensure success. We are always looking for people to live at the farms and in the communtites to help support our missions.\

The Rogers Family Company's Community Aid Program assists both the farmers and the community as a whole. Please visit www.rogersfamilyco.com for more information.