Spirit of Africa Pin • Funding Drying Beds at Kii

Producer: Joyce Wanjiku

Project: Metal Drying tables

Goal: $10,000 raised

Region: Kirinyaga, Kenya

Kii is a washing station we've purchased coffee from for 6+ years now, and has consistently been some of our favorite among the hundreds we cup in Kenya each year. The former director, Frederick, of the Runge'to cooperative, of which Kii is part of, impressed us with his implementation of forward looking projects including a cooperative bank and transparent payment system for farmers delivering cherry. He also built a thriving dairy cooperative for the coffee farmers since many of them still hold significant portions of their money in cattle.

Frederick unfortunately passed from covid, but we see the new director continuing his legacy of outstanding performance and investment in their farmers and quality. This year Joyce is working to put in metal drying tables. This seems like a small upgrade, but wooden drying tables tend to sag heavily in the middle, which creates more work, and lower quality as cherries pile up too deeply and dry unevenly. This will also expand their capacity for drying overall which has been a huge bottleneck in the past during peak season. Without room for drying coffee cherry it can start to go bad in a day or two, dramatically reducing quality and income for farmers during the busiest time of year.

Support and accelerate Joyce's drying table project project with this "Spirit of Africa" pin designed by WiseTwo, a very talented Kenyan street artist!

The corresponding cup can be found here

$10 from every pin purchased goes to Kii's drying table project.