A lot of coffee is grown in Mexico and Central America, and coffee farmers and their families also tend to experience a lot of hunger. There’s an excellent new short film about it, called After the Harvest: Fighting Hunger in the Coffeelands. From the film’s blog:
In a recent survey of small-scale coffee farmers in Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, over 67% indicated they were unable to maintain their normal diet for 3-8 months of the year. These are “Los Meses Flacos,” or the thin months, when families make ends meet by eating less, eating less expensive foods, or borrowing against their future earnings from coffee. While incredibly complex, recent work suggests it is not unsolvable.
“After the Harvest: Fighting Hunger in the Coffeelands” is a film that brings the day-to-day challenges of the thin months to life in the voices of coffee farmers themselves, and shares the successes of creative projects that have been established to eliminate this annual period of food insecurity.
Fortunately, the 20-minute film is available for free online, and is embedded here. It’s definitely worth checking out.
