CLOSING MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER
"Beginning with the end…"As of December 24, we will end our roastery operations. Our final shipping day will be that date—unless we sell out sooner. While endings can feel bittersweet, this one is full of purpose. Something larger and deeply meaningful is taking shape, and I’m eager to share what’s next.
During the past 10 years our roasting has operated on my daughter's 1840's farm in the beautiful hills of Middle Tennessee, just south of Nashville. Four of my grandkids have grown up around the roastery, learning pretty much all there is to know about the process and the countries the beans come from. One "grandcub" (Phoenix) even picked up Spanish, which I would speak sometimes when roasting. (Jude and Phoenix are with "me", their "BopBop")
Over the years, we have made thousands of friends, like you, who have enjoyed our coffees while supporting our efforts of empowering families in very difficult places.
More than fifteen years ago, I began working throughout Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the Caribbean to engage communities living in unimaginable poverty. My hope was to support transformation—nutritionally, economically, relationally, and spiritually. What I did not expect was how profoundly these extraordinary people would transform me.
Their resilience, wisdom, humor, and faith forced me to tear up my original plans more than once and to learn to listen first.Here in North America—with abundance, stability, food, and clean water—it’s easy to assume “the poor need us.” My experience taught a truer lesson: we need the poor. We need their capacity for joy, their sense of community, their heritage stories, and the beautiful faith woven into their lives.One tangible outcome of this work has been the coffees we’ve shared—stories in every cup.
More importantly, the relationships formed with heroic farming families have helped introduce many of them to larger importers with the ability to change entire regions. These partnerships have provided sustainable models that work without external dependency. Their patience, especially as I fumbled through learning Swahili, Creole, Spanish, and more, reminded me that love is more a language of the heart, not perfection.
Though the roastery is closing, the mission continues. Here is what’s next:
A New Business
I am launching a new for-profit venture designed to significantly scale and fund global work among the communities I love. The next season will require resources that the coffee biz alone cannot provide. This new endeavor will create the capacity needed to go further, faster, to reach more than ever. (More details soon.)
A New Non-Profit
I am also forming an international NGO to strengthen four essential dimensions of life:
• Nutritional & Physical Health
• Financial Health
• Relational Health
• Spiritual Health
We will work with committed individuals, churches, and faith-based groups across the U.S., while also continuing to collaborate closely with poor communities around the world. I’m partnering with respected, well-known leaders in their fields, and my role will be to unite these streams of expertise into cohesive impact. This is precisely what we have done on a smaller scale.
This new season has been decades in the making, shaped by every twist, challenge, and miracle along the way.
To each of you who believed in this mission and enjoyed our coffees—thank you. Your support has meant more than you know. The friendships built, the lives touched, and the communities strengthened will continue to flourish. You have truly helped to change the world… one cup at a time!
With gratitude and great expectation,
Steve Helm (Javapastor)
