More than a cuppa Joe

     I was still attempting to assimilate all the information I had gleaned from Doug Bragg about the process of boiling  sap down into Vermont maple syrup as I drove out of his driveway on Tuesday.  I was back on the road again, this time headed to downtown Waterbury.  It was about 1 pm when I parked the car across from the AMTRAK train station that had been converted into the visitors center for the Green Mountain Coffee Company.

 

     But before heading in I looked around for a place to grab a quick bite to eat.  There just a few steps away was the Park Cafe, reminiscent of Alice's Restaurant from a movie of the same name from my impressionable youth.  I fully expected Arlo Guthrie to emerge from the kitchen with a tray of silverware.  The soup was homemade, as was the bread for my sandwich.  All the staff wore do rags and had tattoos.  The food was quite good and the prices reasonable.  So I was satiated as I strolled back to learn about Green Mountain Coffee.

     I came to discover that the train station was divided into two parts: a self guided interactive information center, and a coffee and gift shop.  So I worked my way through all the spinning Q and A displays, lifted the over sized coffee beans that hid factoids, and looked into dark boxes to see pictures of far away places where the beans are grown, all the while images were being projected onto the walls and ceiling.  That small room contained quite a wealth of information!  Green Mountain Coffee has come a long way since it's inception in 1981 as a small cafe in Waitsfield, VT.  Just to give you the scope of their present operations, they now purchase over 164 million bio degradable coffee cups annually.

While they are not strictly a coop like Cabot Creamery, they do prefer to establish long term relationships with coffee growers around the world in places like Central America, Indonesia, and Africa.  They take into account the well being of their suppliers and are proud to sell only Fair Trade Certified coffee.  That means while also being mindful of their own bottom line they are also concerned about the economic viability of the thousands who make coffee growing their livelihood.  And Green Mountain also attempts to protect the environment as well.  So they are more than just a good cup of coffee.  They are also striving to protect the ecosystem where the coffee is harvested.  As I learned from their documentation:

"The customer's coffee experience is

environmentally sound,

socially just,

and undeniably delicious."

     And GMCR supports local communities as well.  They make donations to more than 1,200 non-profit organizations annually.  In addition, each employee is paid 6.5 workdays (52 hours) each year to contribute to their own community in a volunteer project.  So with over 6,000 employees that amounts to more than 300,000 hours of paid time off to enrich and restore humanity.

     I eventually found my way over to the coffee and gift shop, looking for the free sample that I thought I was promised in a brochure I had read.  Finding that not to be the case I instead looked at the merchandise for sale and longingly ogled over one of their Keurig K cup coffee makers.  (GMCR purchased Keurig in 2006).  But alas, they were a pretty expensive machine for my morning cup of Joe.

     I came away from the visitor's center with a greater appreciation for the efforts of the folks at Green Mountain, not just to provide a good product, but to also work toward a better world for all of us.

Vinny note:  After returning home I attended the 10th anniversary banquet of the Fire Department of Montgomery County and was delighted to win one of their many door prizes, a Keurig K Cup coffee maker and a year's supply of K Cups!