Coffees for a Cause
PT's Coffee Roasting Co. is an active member of the Topeka community and also strives to foster positive change for people along the global coffee supply chain.
Our Direct Trade coffee-buying philosophy has resulted in strong partnershipsâthrough good times and badâwith coffee farmers and their immediate communities throughout Latin America. In order to extend our reach, we make a point of working with trusted importers and donating to organizations who accomplish important work at origin.
Each year we offer various incarnations of Per Aspera Benefit Blend as well as one-off Coffees for a Cause. Many thanks to our customers for making these fundraising efforts a success! Learn more below:
Per Aspera Benefit Blend
100% of net profits benefit organizations dedicated to fostering positive social change.
Winter 2024
Harvesters Community Food Network
Harvesters is a 501(c)3 nonprofit food bank and certified member of Feeding America based in Topeka, KS, and Kansas City, MO, that distributes food and household products to more than 760 nonprofit agencies, including emergency food pantries, community kitchens, homeless shelters, childrenâs homes, and more. They also offer education programs to increase awareness of hunger and teach about good nutrition.
Winter 2023
Capper Foundation
For more than a century, Capper Foundation has been providing individualized care for people of all ages living with disabilities. With therapy, residential and day services, and support, Capper Foundation advocates for and empowers all people to live their fullest lives.
Spring 2022
Children's Discovery Center
Kansas Children's Discovery Center is a non-profit children's museum with a mission to provide every child with rich and diverse museum experiences. One in six visitors to the Discovery Center receives a free or discounted admission to be able to play.
Gifts and donations to the Discovery Center support programs, including Play Free, a play-based education and exploration program for children with incarcerated mothers; Museums for All, which offers discounted admission for any family qualifying for state food assistance; and Medical Warriors, a free program for medically fragile children that provides crowd-free private playtime with family.
Summer 2021
Grounds for Health
Since 1996, Grounds for Health has worked in Latin America and Africa to address one of the most significant disparities in womenâs health globally. Cervical cancer is a nearly 100% treatable disease, and yet in the next 15 years it could kill almost 4.5 million womenâ85% of whom will live in developing countries. If every woman were screened just once in her lifetime, global cervical cancer rates would drop by 30%; screened twice, rates drop by 60%.
Grounds for Health specializes in working in communities that represent the base of global supply chains such as coffee, tea, cut flowers and cocoa.
Spring 2021
Silverbackks
This Topeka-based grassroots volunteer organization formed in July 201, when co-founder Jude Quinn passed out cold bottles of water to people on the streets on a very hot Sunday. From that simple act, SilverSunday was created.
SilverSunday grew from bottled water, to coffee and cookies, to sack lunches, to hot meals every Sunday for anyone who needs one, among other programs.
Summer 2020
Topeka Youth Project
Topeka Youth Project provides underserved and at-risk youth with employment and leadership training, education on the workings of the legal system, help with financial literacy, and other life skills training in an effort to prevent high-risk behaviors among young adults while preparing them for employment and adulthood.
Coffees for a Cause
Fundraisers for organizations that support people along the global coffee supply chain.
March 2024
Grounds for Health Week
For the inaugural Grounds for Health Week, March 8th-15th, we donated $3 per bag sold of three women-produced coffees to support GfH's crucial healthcare work in coffee communities.
Winter 2022-23
Ecuador | La Tortuga AAA
Beginning on #GivingTuesday, we are donating a portion of the proceeds from every bag sold of La Tortuga AAAâsourced from a single farmer in the GalĂĄpagos Islandsâto the GalĂĄpagos Conservancy, which is "dedicated exclusively to the long-term protection and restoration of the GalĂĄpagos Islands and its brilliant mosaic of life, including more than 2,000 species found nowhere else on Earth."
Winter 2021-22
Mexico | CESMACH Organic El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve
Net profits were donated to Food 4 Farmers to support their work with CESMACH:
"We began working with CESMACH in 2013, after coffee rust struck and devastated coffee farms throughout Latin America, to develop effective long-term strategies to overcome food insecurity and inadequate coffee livelihoods.
"For years, CESMACH families have been confronting the challenges of low coffee prices and devastating effects of climate change. Most families here face two and a half months of food scarcity every year.
"Together, we identified beekeeping as a key strategy to build better livelihoods and nutrition. The cooperative had begun beekeeping activities several years earlier, and already had 50 members who had learned basic beekeeping skills."
Winter 2020-21
Ethiopia | Suke Quto Honey
We donated $1 per bag sold to the Suke Quto School Project to help purchase essential supplies.
Suke School was established in 2003 with just one teacher for 200 students in a mud-walled classroom with a thatched roof. In 2015, Ato Tesfaye Bekele of Suke Quto farm poured a cement floor for the school, which helped with cleanliness. However, the school has grown in the years since it opened.
It now caters to 950 students from six kebeles with the help of 3 teachers, two of whom are paid by the community.
Due to the lack of space, students study in shifts. Two blocks of classrooms and a set of toilets are under construction. The school has classes for grades one through eight;Â those who pursue education beyond grade eight face many challenges. At the least, they will have to walk many miles to the nearest high school. This is particularly challenging for young girls who want to continue their studies.
Spring 2018
Burundi | Karehe IWCA Women's Cooperative
We donated $0.50 per bag sold of this lotâproduced by smallholder members of International Women's Coffee Allianceâto Grounds for Health.
Since 1996, the organization has worked in Latin America and Africa to address one of the most significant disparities in womenâs health globally. Cervical cancer is a nearly 100% treatable disease, and yet in the next 15 years it is expected to kill six million womenâ90% of whom will live in developing countries. They specialize in working in communities that represent the base of global supply chains such as coffee, tea, cut flowers, and cocoa.