June Coffee News

-Family Celebrations
-Climate Action - Local Food

Family Celebrations
It has been a momentous week in the Velasquez Eberhart household. On Wednesday, our oldest graduated from Highland Park Senior High School. On Thursday our youngest graduated from Adam's Spanish Immersion Elementary school (sadly ending a wonderful 13 year connection our family has had with this wonderful school). And, as if that wasn't enough, Cathy's father was recognized on Thursday for 50 years of ministry in the United Methodist Church. We intend to celebrate them all with a fun family gathering this weekend. We share a few photos of our family celebrations on our Facebook page and wish you a wonderful summer now that school is out!

Climate Action - Local Food
With the growing season finally upon us, it seems timely to focus our Climate Action this month on the growing local food movement. Did you know that if you account for all the emissions from seed to plate to landfill, the food industry accounts for as much as 31 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions. The livestock industry alone is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the total—more than the entire transportation sector.

Thankfully we are blessed here in Minnesota with a flourishing local sustainable food movement. (Velasquez Family Coffee was inspired by many of the great direct marketing farmers in the region!) Here are a few yummy ways to eat well AND address the Climate Crisis. 

• Start by checking out Take a Bite out of Climate Change from Anna Lappe and the Small Planet Institute -- packed full of useful resources and ideas.
• Buy directly from a farmer, Shop at a Farmer's Market or Join a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture). We give a special shout out for Fresh Earth Farms that has been offering a Velasquez Family Coffee share for the past number of years and last we heard still has a few shares available (if you call soon).
• Reduce Food Waste (apparently nearly half of what is harvested ends up wasted!) Eureka Recycling has a great new website called Make Dirt Not Waste with lots of tips for saving money and reducing food waste. (They also have resources for holding zero-waste events!)
• Grow your own. Gardening Matters has lots of great resources including Yards to Gardens that can link you to all things Gardening.

Describe your Favorite Roast -- for a free bag of coffee
Last month, we received a few coffee descriptions from customers but we'd really love more. We'd like to know which is your favorite Velasquez Family coffee. Why do you like it? What words would you use to describe it's flavors and other qualities to someone else? We'd like to update the coffee descriptions on our website and if we use your words, we'll give you a free bag of your favorite coffee to say thank you. Send your responses to us at coffee@vfamilycoffee.com. Gracias!!