SOLIDARITY NETWORKS FOR OTHER ECONOMIES
New Branch in the AgroEco Solidarity Supply Network: Youth Coffee Cart Collective at the Aptos Farmers Market
It is 6 am on Saturday morning. The crinkling of AgroEco Coffee bags and the pouring of coffee grains onto filters begins as Growing Justice Youth Apprentice Mario Manzano brews coffee for the Aptos Farmers Market. Since 2004 AgroEco Coffee has mostly reached consumers’ cups through Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company or the UC Santa Cruz Dining Halls. Now, the solidarity supply network is branching out!
In April CAN started a youth and solidarity focused economic initiative through our acquisition of a previously owned coffee stand at the Aptos Farmers Market. Since then, we began transforming the stand into a space of practice and learning for incubating future cooperatives, and of course, getting fresh AgroEco Coffee and its story directly to the people in Santa Cruz County. Arnulfo Artiga from Live Oak and Mario Manzano from Watsonville are transitioning this coffee stand into what they now call a Youth Coffee Cart Collective.
The Collective extends the network of supply actors first created with farmers from cooperatives in Mexico and Nicaragua to a new economic initiative for youth here in the global north. Come the new year we will be presenting the youth’s own beverage menu.
Visit us Saturdays from 8am to 12pm for freshly brewed cups of AgroEco coffee or homemade organic chai.
Sample new menu items as they become available–herbal teas from Growing Justice’s agroecological garden harvests, hot chocolate from other youth cooperatives in Chiapas, and some of their mothers’ freshly made agua frescas in the summer months.
Contribute to our work as we accompany and support youth in making their economic alternatives possible across communities from south to north.
Donate today and have each dollar matched!
