Saint Mary's is selling coffee in Spes Unica and Cyber Cafe this week in support of and to raise awareness for the Emiliani Project. All proceeds go towards the children of the Emiliani Project and the construction of an orphanage.
The coffee is fair-trade and grown on small two- to three-acre family farms in Colombia, and it will be sold at a discounted rate, $1 for a small cup and $1.50 for a large.
Junior Deirdre O’Leary has been working with Barry Bowles, Director of Dining Services, for weeks in order to encourage the College to sell and support the Emiliani Project.
“Conveniently, Food Week is this week, and Barry Bowles and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to sell Emiliani coffee because it supports an amazing cause,” she said.
The Emiliani Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping orphaned and abandoned children in Colombia, O'Leary said.
“By selling fair trade coffee, the non-profit gets its name out there,” O’Leary said. “Then, 100 percent of these profits and 100 percent of all donations to the charity, go right to the children."
The organization is named after St. Jerome Emiliani, the patron saint of orphaned and abandoned children who built a hospital and two orphanages and cared for innumerable children throughout his life, O’Leary said.
O'Leary said the charity's first major project, following in the spirit of Saint Jerome Emiliani, is to build an orphanage for children on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia, the second largest city in the country.
“According to the World Bank, one third of Colombia's population lives on or below their poverty line, and there are hundreds of thousands of orphaned and abandoned children in the country,” O’Leary said.
She said the orphanage will provide a space for 160 children.
“It will provide shelter, food, education, love, faith community and anything else a child could need to grow up and living a healthy, fruitful, joyous life,” O’Leary said. “... A Colombian priest has already donated a 17-acre plot of land to the Emiliani Project, and others have generously given labor and some supplies, now all that is left to do is raise the funds for the orphanage.”
“When the charity runs mission trips now, participants work with at the orphanage with the priest who donated their land, and they work to improve the lives of children in the parish,” she said.
Bowles said all the leftover coffee from this week will be sold in the Spes Unica and Cyber Cafe and has the possibility of being for sale in bulk throughout the rest of the year and further on.
O’Leary said encouraged students to contact her if they enjoy the coffee.
“I would love for Emiliani coffee to be sold in these cafes at Saint Mary's permanently, and it could be possible if a good response is elicited,” she said.
For more information about the Emiliani Project, visit emilianiproject.org
