Kafe Lespwa is tax deductible
September 23, 2010

We are excited to tell our U.S. customers about another benefit of purchasing Kafe Lespwa: 30 percent of the price is tax deductible.

To clarify: when people make purchases from Just Haiti—not from a reseller—30 percent of the base price of the coffee is a tax-deductible charitable cash donation to Just Haiti. Shipping costs are not deductible.

There are a host of reasons to buy Kafe Lespwa, but we determined the new one this week. After carefully examining our sales and other financial records and consulting our tax expert, we concluded that the proceeds from Kafe Lespwa sales are at least 30 percent.

As you probably know, all those sales proceeds go to the Kafe Devlopman Baradè (KDB), the association of impoverished subsistence coffee-growing families in Baradères. Those funds represent an important portion of our goals as a public charity. And since the funds originate with our customers, they constitute charitable contributions.

As for the other benefits of purchasing Kafe Lespwa, they include:

• Kafe Lespwa is delicious! —Smooth, rich, and full bodied, with low acidity and hints of chocolate.
   
• Kafe Lespwa means "coffee of hope" in Haitian Creole. It represents the hope that subsistence farmers hold for a future free from poverty and dependency.
   
• Kafe Lespwa is not just "fair trade," it's "fair trade-plus." Farmers receive the established fair trade price up front—PLUS, all proceeds from sales benefit the growers' association.
   
• When you buy Kafe Lespwa, you make an economic choice in preference for the poor, instead of a choice that may profit primarily those who exploit the labor of the poor.
   
• Shade-grown Kafe Lespwa indirectly prevents soil erosion and the destruction of waterways by eroded sediment. That's because the plants require much shade, so farmers won't risk cutting down large forest trees that shield the soil from erosive rainstorms. Saving the trees also preserves habitat for birds and other wildlife.
   
• Kafe Lespwa is organically grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

You can buy Kafe Lespwa online at www.justhaiti.org/buycoffee.htm.

During the coming holiday season, you will also be able to purchase Kafe Lespwa at local events, mostly in the Chicago and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas. Watch our website events calendar for a listing of upcoming events. We plan to offer not only 12-ounce bags of Kafe Lespwa but also small new "stocking-stuffer" packets of coffee, along with embroidered muslin totes made by a women's cooperative in Baradères.

Just Haiti works to alleviate poverty, hunger, violence, illiteracy and disease in Haiti by fostering small-business development, education programs, employment opportunity, infrastructure improvement and environmental quality. Just Haiti is a Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

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