Husky Grind is Brewing Change with Sustainable Coffee and Empowering Education
February 20, 2025 by Paige Stanley
The University of Washington’s on-campus coffee roastery, Husky Grind, offers more than just coffee. It provides an Educational Coffee Program, a strong commitment to sustainability and a focus on empowering the workers who drive the global coffee industry.
The history of coffee dates back to the 9th century. After being quickly embraced by the Islamic world, coffee spread globally. The coffee trade followed the same routes as the spice and slave trade, with the Dutch East India Company playing a significant role. Coffee has been enjoyed worldwide for centuries.
In 1962, the International Coffee Agreement was enacted to stabilize the global coffee market by preventing extreme supply and demand fluctuations and price volatility. Then, in 1971, Starbucks opened its first location, pioneering the concept of coffee shops as a "third place"—a space between work and home where people could relax with a cup of coffee. This sparked the second wave of coffee consumption.
Husky Grind falls into the third wave of coffee consumption: specialty coffee. Specialty coffee is defined by both traceability and quality. All specialty coffee must be scored by a professional coffee taster known as a Q grader, who uses a double-blind cupping method and rates the coffee on a 0-100 point scale. Coffee that scores 80 points or higher qualifies for the specialty coffee market.
Husky Grind sources its specialty coffee through Atlas Coffee Importers. According to Ryan Jongeward, Manager of the Husky Grind Cafe and Coffee Education Program, “[Atlas Coffee Importers] buy coffee from producers with the intention of supporting the ongoing work to elevate worker conditions, which in turn improves quality of life and the quality of the product at the farm level.”
Jongeward also noted that out of the 12.5 million coffee farms worldwide, more than 12.4 million are smallholder farms (less than 75 acres), and over 50% of these farmers live in poverty. Furthermore, women contribute to 70% of global coffee production. The three farms that Husky Grind coffee comes from are Guatemala ACODIHUE, Rwanda Sholi Cooperative, and Mexico NKG Bloom Finca Teresa, all of which are Fair Trade Certified.
ACODIHUE, a cooperative founded in 1996 with support from the European Union and Guatemalan government, now has 1,034 members, 722 of whom are women. In 2012, the cooperative formed a formal women’s group and began selling women-produced coffee. Today, there are 21 separate women’s groups, each with 15 to 100 members. These groups offer training and workshops to empower women in the coffee industry.
Rwanda’s Sholi Cooperative started as a women’s group in 1994. Today, over a third of its members are women. The cooperative distributes 2/3 of its profits directly to female members for them to use as they wish, while the remaining 1/3 is allocated to a project chosen by the women, such as learning to sew or creating crafts to sell.
Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG), the largest shareholder of Atlas, provides smallholder farms like Mexico’s Finca Teresa with opportunities and resources to help them maximize their potential. NKG also prioritizes long-term success through offering producers seedlings, technical and agricultural assistance, access to high-quality fertilizers and inputs, access to financing, and a guarantee of coffee purchasing.
In addition to sourcing coffee from Fair Trade farms, Husky Grind has implemented sustainable practices. These include using compostable bags for retail whole bean coffee, reusing Cambros for whole bean orders, offering a reusable cup incentive, and collaborating with the UW Farm to provide in-season ingredients.
The core goal of Husky Grind’s program is to promote critical consumerism by encouraging informed purchasing decisions. As Jongeward puts it, “Every dollar you spend has a very direct correlation with the way the world will continue to be molded.”
Currently, Husky Grind’s pricing is significantly lower than the average specialty coffee, at just $1 per ounce of beans. Be sure to check out Husky Grind Cafe’s coffee offerings at our three cafes in Alder Hall, Oak Hall and Mercer Court, and the Educational Coffee Program’s quarterly schedule. Sign up for the mailing list here!
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