Innovation for Good: Pure Origin and Grounds for Health

“We are passionate about people and coffee.”

Drinking coffee can have many benefits beyond the obligatory buzz including lowering your chances of developing Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, according to numerous studies.

But it’s possible for coffee to contribute to spiritual and moral well-being as well as physical. Just imagine your morning “cuppa joe” and how inspiring it would be to know who grew your coffee and where, and to learn how your brew benefits an under-served community on the other side of the world?

Pure Origin Coffee is on this mission. They are connecting the world through “pure coffee, pure people, [and] pure stories.”

“We are passionate about people and coffee. Coffee is an art and a science with the capability to bring anyone together,” says Amy Kihnke, marketing manager for Pure Origin.

Committed to sourcing the finest coffee beans and ensuring farmers receive fair value, their efforts go even farther beyond that, providing direct and intimate connections between consumers and producers and supporting non-profit organizations in their communities.

“By sharing the stories and projects of farmers worldwide, we invite communities to support sustainable causes,” says Kihnke. With specialized augmented reality technology, Pure Origin brings farmers’ photos on their coffee bags to life, revealing the initiatives that they support. “People can feel good knowing the coffee they are drinking is giving back to clean water initiatives, supporting small businesses, and testing for cervical cancer—to name just a few!”

Grounds For Health

“We will never be satisfied until every woman has access to high-quality cervical cancer prevention services.”

In Kenya, Pure Origin supports the work of Grounds for Health, an international non-profit that partners with coffee companies and health authorities to combat cervical cancer.

“Our vision is to build the bridge to globally inclusive health care through the prevention of cervical cancer in underserved coffee communities,” according to Grounds for Health’s website.

Cervical cancer, a largely preventable disease, is the cause of most cancer deaths among women in East African countries. Grounds for Health is determined to change that statistic: “We will never be satisfied until every woman has access to high-quality cervical cancer prevention services.”

This seemingly random connection of coffee and social activism was the result of a business trip by Founder Dan Cox to Mexico in 1996. Colliding with levels of poverty and gender inequity he had never previously experienced, he found his view of life fundamentally changed.

“Whether it was blind faith, gross naivety or just plain dumb luck​, ​something clicked for me and here we are 25​ ​years later having expanded into five other countries, screened over 135,000 women​,​ treated over 11,000, while training over 575 medical care givers and well over 1,000 community health promoters,” says Cox.

They have discovered that a profound inequity in access to health care services is a root cause in underserved communities, especially in the rural areas where coffee cultivation is practiced. To re duce those inequities, Grounds for Health strives to train local health care workers and providers in cervical cancer prevention, while ensuring that women are treated with dignity and respect.