If you love drinking coffee, then you have the opportunity to help people and the environment just by choosing the right coffee to drink!

Purchasing "Shade Grown Coffee" from various companies supports the ecology and native wildlife. Purchasing from groups such as Growers First helps family farms.

Some companies invest their profits in a positive action to work to prevent the loss of family farms. Growers First is a non-profit organization engaged in relief and development by benefiting the indigenous coffee farms in Oaxaca, Mexico, to help the community with their economical and spiritual objectives.

One group, Thanksgiving Coffee Company, blends wonderful tasting coffees that are certified by the Rainforest Alliance program, and assessed by the Organic Crop Improvement Association and Quality Assurance International. The selection criterion for the coffee farm plants is developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and other groups. Their goal is to preserve the rich upper canopy of the shade trees providing the coverage for the shade grown coffee. The shade forest provides the plant matter, fruits, nectar and habitat for a thriving insect community, which provides food for birds. Epiphytes, which are plants without roots such as mistletoe, are also prevalent and contribute to the shade forest diversity for wildlife such as frogs and salamanders.

So, with the simple delight of having a cup of coffee, you can make a difference by helping to preserve the ecology for our children, helping family coffee farms, and helping to save the habitat for our birds.