So what does World Water Day have to do with Ugandan Gold Coffee? So glad you asked that question! Buying coffee from a company which promises to provide clean fresh water has been in the news lately so I thought you might be interested on how the numbers work over here at Ugandan Gold Coffee. First, we do more than fresh water projects with our funds–we make sure the workers are paid and the farm is maintained. We provide a medical clinic at the farm for the workers and their families. We are the conduit for other development projects like the model food farm which is currently located on adjoining acerage. And when we do a clean water project, we don’t just show up, drill a well and leave. We work with the village elders to create a water committee to collect funds to maintain the well in good condition so it provides fresh, healthful water for years to come. We try to use our money wisely and often rehab existing, but non-working, wells for a fraction of the price of drilling a new one so our funds will stretch further.
What do the numbers look like? This is done with the caveat that the numbers can and do change–the price of drilling continues to go up; the farm may need extra funds for repair, or another development project may have immediate funding demands. But in general, a new well–or borehole–costs an average of $5000 and has the capacity to produce fresh water for approximately 10 years at the rate of 3 liters/minute, all day, every day!
You purchase a bag of delicious Ugandan Gold Coffee on this website for $8.99 and can get 60 cups of coffee, costing you $0.15 each. We make a profit of about $0.032/cup and it will take many cups of coffee to drill a borehole–about 156,250 cups of coffee–but that borehole will produce more than 33 million cups water over time. For each bag of coffee purchased, we can produce about 12,700 cups of water, or 1,588 gallons of water. The recommended amount of fresh water for a person is 5 gallons/day and at that rate, your bag of Ugandan Gold Coffee will provide, not just 7 days of water, but more than 300 days of fresh, life-giving, clean water!
So, you choose–7 days or more than 300? What would you like your morning coffee to accomplish?
Thank you!
