Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Nathan King worked with a leading supplier of high quality cacao in the Dominican Republic, Zorzal Cacao, to establish fermentation protocols that will improve  cacao quality and  ultimately  increase its marketability in the lucrative  global chocolate  market.  Nathan has an extensive knowledge of Reserva Zorzal as he has worked as both a bird researcher and technical consultant for them in the past. On this assignment, Nathan set out to produce higher quality beans by improving the fermentation process and consistency so that there are less undesirable beans in the sorting stage. He also c ollaborated with the Zorzal team to design and build an electronic monitoring and logging system to closely manage the fermentation and drying processes. During this process, Nathan used cacao elements that are typically waste products to study how it affects the taste. Esters, components used for flavor, are increased at higher temperatures and add...

This past December, F2F volunteer, Melanie Forstrom traveled to Nicaragua, where she conducted interactive workshops for Junior Achievement Nicaragua (JA) facilitators and trainers to improve educational processes and teaching methodologies.  JA is a non-profit educational organization that is present in more than 120 countries. The goal of the organization is to promote economic education from an early age and empower young leaders to be proactive in their own development, both personally and professionally. It implements business education programs aimed at children and adolescents, young women, and female heads of household.  Melanie Forstom earned her Master’s degree in Conflict Transformation from the School for International Training and has spent countless years working with at-risk youth in a variety of different locations and programs throughout the United States. She currently leads youth development programming in Ulster Country through the Cornell Coo...

In December, Mark Willuhn traveled to western Guatemala to work with smallholder farmers who have been searching for ways to diversify their income sources and expand into the agrotourism industry. Mark worked with an organization called FECCEG which is a federation formed by 35 organic coffee farmers. He first surveyed the farms to assess the potential for agrotourism market and then began working with FECCEG staff to develop an agrotourism implementation plan . Mark also developed a Visitor Management and Tourism Development Plan with FECCEG staff to begin construction and marketing strategies immediately. He believes that social media will be vital to spark the interest of local and world markets to the beauty and potential of the region as a place to visit.    [Left] Fresh bags of coffee being stored before shipment [Right] Five visitor cabanas were constructed in El Vergel An FECCEG federation advertisement. Translation: "Together we can go furthe...

Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer, Andy Lohof, offered his business expertise this past December to help build the strategic management and business planning skills of a local farmers association. He specifically assisted the Association des Travallleurs de Dondon (ATD) in drafting a business plan that will make them economically competitive in the local and world economy. Andy organized and led group exercises and workshops to combine various inputs from the participants and ultimately create a new business plan that will improve efficiency and increase yields. Workshop participants taking a group photo with Andy  [Left] Andy recording ideas from workshop participants during a  brainstorming session [Right] Participants actively engaging in an exercise Andy was a volunteer on this very same project back in 2014, and was moved to see that the President of ATD had already invoked some of the business management recommendatio...

By: F2F Guatemala Volunteer, Katherine Li In November 2017, I had the opportunity to travel to Guatemala and volunteer as a food toxicologist for the F2F program. The main organization I worked with, Industria Panelera de Guatemala (IPAGUA), produces dulce panela , using a manufacturing technique that is the first of its kind in Guatemala. The process of making panela, which includes boiling cane sugar at high temperatures, can generate acrylamide. Worldwide, acrylamide is a food toxin with rising concern, as it has been classified as a probable human carcinogen, and is present in a lot of commonly-consumed foods (e.g., french fries, potato chips, toasted bread, coffee). Research on acrylamide formation in panela is limited, and Guatemala currently does not have an in-country laboratory that can reliably measure acrylamide in food products. As such, the purpose of this assignment was to help determine which stages of the panela manufacturing process generates the most acrylamide...

By Ian Robinson, F2F Volunteer in Ecuador  It’s a Tuesday morning in Esfuerzo, a rural community in the Ecuadorian Amazon. As the clock hits 9:00 am, a handful of individuals gather in a covered area on the side of the road, each of them carrying a shovel, ax, or hoe. Six piles of decomposing organic waste are spread out across the ground beneath the structure, each pile at a different stage in the process of transformation from vegetable scraps to becoming compost. For the last ten years, these Tuesday morning work sessions have been a weekly tradition in Esfuerzo, one of ten communities in the area to participate in a program that transforms organic waste from municipal markets into nutrient-rich compost. When the waste decomposes, the municipality helps the communities market and transport the fertilizer to their final customers. Residents estimate that they produce 500 40-kg sacks of compost each year and generate over $1,200 in revenue. They also use the fertil...